Teodoro Casiño | |
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Casiño in 2011
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Member of the House of Representatives for Bayan Muna Party-list | |
In office June 30, 2004 – June 30, 2013 Serving with Neri Javier Colmenares |
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Personal details | |
Born |
Teodoro A. Casiño November 15, 1968 Davao City, Philippines |
Nationality | Filipino |
Political party | Bayan Muna (party-list reperesentative) |
Spouse(s) | Ruth Cervantes |
Children | 2 |
Alma mater |
La Salle Green Hills University of the Philippines Los Baños |
Profession | Writer, politician, journalist |
Website | myteddycasiño |
Teodoro A. Casiño (born 15 November 1968), popularly known as Teddy Casiño, is a writer and journalist. He was a member of the House of Representatives for Bayan Muna.
Born to middle class parents, Casino finished elementary education at the De La Salle University (DLSU) in 1982. He continued his high school studies at La Salle Green Hills, where his stint as a volunteer for the National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) in the 1986 snap elections swept him into the politics of People Power via the EDSA Revolution.
The EDSA experience, plus the stories about hunger in Negros, moved him to forego a DLSU scholarship to study agriculture in UP Los Baños, where he became an activist in his freshman year. He became editor in chief of the student paper, The UPLB Perspective, from 1989–1991 even as he consistently made it to the honor roll.
In 1991, Casino was elected national president of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), an alliance of over 700 student publications nationwide. He chose to delay his thesis requirement to work full-time for the CEGP. He eventually graduated from UPLB with the degree of BA Sociology in 1993, with his thesis bringing him to faraway Pamplona town in Cagayan Valley, where he studied the impact of Church activism on rural communities.
After his stint in the student movement, Teddy joined the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU - May First Movement). His childhood ambition and his father's wishes for him to become a lawyer gave way to his activism. In 1996, he entered the UP College of Law only to leave it three days later when it interfered with his work in the KMU.
After four years in the KMU, he joined the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), the largest alliance of progressive people's organizations in the country. He was elected secretary general in 1999 and was catapulted to national prominence in 2001 as one of the youngest leaders of EDSA 2.
Casino was appointed commissioner of the EDSA People Power Commission but was removed for constantly being critical of the current administration. He had a short stint in ABS-CBN's Hoy Gising and The Correspondents. In 2002, he was accorded the UPLB Distinguished Alumni Award for Extension.