The candidate's top five accomplishments and contributions for the last 15 years or so

As Bayan Muna representative for three terms in the lower house, Colmenares principally authored three laws. Another 20 bills he filed were substituted by subsequent House bills, three of which were enacted into law. He also served as senior deputy minority leader during the 16th Congress.

Colmenares played a key role in solidifying the progressive groups in the House of Representatives. In 2009, the Makabayan coalition emerged as a significant alliance of activists and civic groups representing marginalized sectors.

During both the Arroyo and Benigno Aquino administrations, Colmenares stayed on the opposition side. He was part of the prosecution teams in the impeachment cases against President Arroyo in 2009, against Ombudsman Gutierrez in 2011 and against Chief Justice Corona in 2012.

He also endorsed the first of two impeachment complaints against President Aquino for culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, and betrayal of public trust involving the Disbursement Acceleration Program, while Bayan Muna, GABRIELA, and Kabataan successfully challenged the constitutionality of the same stimulus program.

In 2016, Colmenares and the Makabayan bloc initially supported President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, partly due to Duterte’s progressive campaign promises which included the resumption of peace talks with the National Democratic Front, the release of political prisoners, ending contractualization and increased support for farmers. They also partially supported the administration because Duterte's landslide victory appeared to be a repudiation of what the coalition called the “elitist” Aquino administration.

Makabayan dropped its support in September 2017 after promised peace talks with the NDF fell through and Cabinet appointees supported by the coalition were denied confirmation; the brief alliance helped the passage of key legislation such as the Free Tuition Law, according to Makabayan. Condemning what it called the anti-people agenda of the Duterte administration, the Makabayan bloc joined the Liberal Party-led minority in the House of Representatives in 2018, which was previously part of the supermajority led by ousted Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.

Since then, Colmenares, current and former Makabayan bloc members, along with other key opposition figures have often been baselessly and dangerously linked to communist rebels by a number of government officials, particularly the spokespersons of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict — a practice referred to and condemned as red-tagging.

Colmenares, other activists, journalists and political analysts decried the red-tagging efforts, including Solicitor General Jose Calida’s pinpointing of Colmenares and other progressive groups during the oral arguments on the constitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism Act and then-spokesperson Antonio Parlade’s admission that the NTF-ELCAC was surveilling Colmenares.