Political Career

In the 2016 Philippine House of Representatives party-list election, De Guzman participated in the legislative race as the first nominee of Sanlakas partylist. Sanlakas did not win any seats.In the 2019 Senate election, De Guzman ran as senator under Partido Lakas ng Masa on a platform of ending contractualization as well as the Mining Act of 1995. De Guzman formed the pro-worker Labor Win coalition for the elections with Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna, Sonny Matula of the Workers’ Party, independent Allan Montaño, and Ernesto Arellano of Katipunan of Kamalayang Kayumanggi. He was also endorsed by the Makabayan bloc for the senatorial elections. De Guzman placed 38th of 62 candidates with 893,506 (2.17%) of the vote, and did not win a seat. On September 28, 2021, De Guzman accepted the nomination of the Partido Lakas ng Masa and various progressive organizations to run for president. Later on October 6, De Guzman filed his certificate of candidacy for president, running on a platform of systemic change including labor issues such as raising minimum wage and abolishing contractualization. Luke Espiritu, Roy Cabonegro, and David D’Angelo filed their candidacies under the party, while De Guzman also identified Teddy Baguilat, Chel Diokno, Bong Labog, Sonny Matula, and Leila de Lima as his Senate bets in an endorsement that rejected "transactional politics".