Kaka Bag-ao
| Arlene "Kaka" Bag-ao | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Philippine House of Representatives from the Lone District of Dinagat Islands | |
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Assumed office 30 June 2013 |
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| Member of the Philippine House of Representatives for Akbayan Partylist | |
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In office 30 June 2010 – 30 June 2013 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
July 3, 1969 Manila, Philippines |
| Nationality | Filipino |
| Political party | Akbayan Citizens' Action Party |
| Alma mater | De La Salle University, Ateneo de Manila University |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Website | http://kakabagao.blogspot.com/ |
Arlene "Kaka" J. Bag-ao (born July 3, 1969) is a Filipino human rights lawyer and agrarian reform advocate who is a member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines since 2010. Currently, she serves as the Representative of the Lone District of Dinagat Islands.
Raised in Loreto, Surigao del Norte (now part of Dinagat Islands), Bag-ao earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the De La Salle University, and her Juris Doctor (JD) degree from the Ateneo de Manila Law School. She passed the Philippine Bar Examinations in 1994. She was a Law and Human Rights Humphrey Fellow — in the Academic Year 2006-2007 - at the University of Minnesota, under a program implemented by the Fulbright Commission.
Bag-ao believes that alternative lawyering is not simply a career but an advocacy for a particular way of life for lawyers and legal advocates; alternative lawyering is a life that is not based on sacrifices and compromises, but a choice and a lifelong commitment.
Bag-ao is one of the founders and the former Executive Director of BALAOD Mindanaw, a law group based in Mindanao, Philippines working for the advancement and protection of the rights of farmers, fisherfolks, indigenous peoples and women’s and other marginalized groups through the creative and developmental use of the law.
As an alternative lawyer, Bag-ao's work is not limited to litigating cases. She is also involved in policy reform both at the local and national levels, working with different advocacy groups and law school based organizations in the country. Committed to the goal of demystifying the law as a monopoly of lawyers and the formally educated, she provides paralegal training and legal clinics to grassroots organizations and has won cases with them.
Bag-ao is a member of the independent secretariat to the peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Revolutionary Worker’s Party of Mindanao (RPMM) that facilitated the signing of the agreement on the cessation of hostilities and the agreement to integrate community consultations as an essential component of the peace process.
In 2004, Bag-ao was asked to become the special consultant to the Secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform and facilitated the awarding of numerous land titles to farmer-beneficiaries. She was also responsible for the formulation and issuance of a Memorandum Circular—later affirmed by the Supreme Court- requiring the DAR to proceed with the acquisition and distribution of lands to farmer-beneficiaries despite injunction orders issued by regular courts.
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