‘Kaka’ Bag-ao to slay the ‘dragon’

A slight diversion from current media reports on horrible deaths occurring during the past few days, is the reported resentment over the appointment  on October 1 last year, of Akbayan Partylist Representative Arlene “Kaka” Bag-ao as caretaker of the lone district of Dinagat Islands by House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.,  and her being given almost immediately of Priority Assistance Development Funds (PADF or pork barrel). The seat had been vacant since former Congressman Ruben Ecleo was dropped from the Congress roll when he went AWOL after being convicted of murdering his wife.

No one, however, could question Speaker Belmonte’s appointing  her as it has been the practice of the leadership of the Lower House to appoint caretakers left vacant. Last December, Speaker Belmonte appointed Erico Aristotle Aumentado as  caretaker of the second district of Bohol after the death of his father, Representative Erico Aumen-tado. The reason behind such appointments  is to place the district in the care of a person knowledgeable about the needs of the constituents.

Bag-ao knows the needs of Dinagatans. She was born and raised  in Loreto, a town in the inslands which is located on the south side of Leyte Gulf. Its main island, Dinagat, is about 60 km from north to south. It is the 81st and newest province and the fifth province in the CARAGA region. Its population is about 650,000. Its capital is San Jose, site of the headquarters of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, Inc. founded by the late Ruben Ecleo.

Objectors don’t savvy the thought of Bag-ao’s running as Dinagat’s lone district representative in the coming May elections; although a Partylist representative, she is allied with the President’s Liberal Party.  And what’s more, soon after her designation, the Department of Budget Management released P140 million in priority development assistance funds (PDAF) or pork barrel for projects in the province. The objectors claim the arrangement “smack of patronage politics,” and that their PDAF has been withheld.

DBM records, however, show that the combined allocation for the leftist Makabayan bloc composed of Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), Anakpawis and Kabataan have received P674 million pesos worth of PDAF since 2010. Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself received an allocation of over P155-million pesos worth of PDAF since 2010, and her right hand at the Lower House, Rep. Danilo Suarez of Quezon, received P56 million.

The DBM released  the P140 million to Dinagat last month, six months after the province’s representative in Congress, fugitive cult leader Ruben Ecleo Jr., was dropped from the roster of the House of Representatives.

Ecleo, leader of the cult Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association Inc. lost his House seat after the Supreme Court affirmed a Sandiganbayan ruling finding him guilty in a graft case involving infrastructure projects in San Jose, Surigao del Norte, where he served as mayor from 1991 to 1994. The Sandiganbayan sentenced him to 18 to 31 years in prison and ordered him to pay P2.8 million to the government.

In April last year, Ecleo was convicted for the murder of his young wife in 2002.  He is now a fugitive on the run.

Bag-ao said her facilitating the release of funds for projects in Dinagat was part of her job as caretaker of the province, and not intended to boost her candidacy in the May election.  The province urgently needed the projects, she said.  The released funds, all of which are accounted for, went to the building of roads, bridges, buildings, water projects, ambulances, multi-cabs, scholarships and hospital and burial assistance.  The release of the funds was incidental, and not meant to boost her candidacy and that of other LP candidates in the elections next month.

The May elections are  crucial for the Ecleo ruling power in Dinagat.  The incumbent   governor seeking reelection is the Ecleo matriarch, Gov. Glenda Ecleo, and, surprisingly, challenging her for the position is the current vice-governor, reform-oriented Jade Ecleo, who is running under the LP banner. The increasing diminution of the Ecleo powerhouse may prove Bag-ao right in calling for the slaying of the “dragon.”

Speaker Belmonte must surely have based his decision to designate Bag-ao as caretaker on her credentials and her application of her knowledge of the law to help the impoverished.

Bag-ao earned her bachelor’s in political science from De La Salle University, and her law degree from the Ateneo de Manila Law School. She passed the bar exams in 1994. In 2006-2007 she was a Human Rights Humphrey Fellow at the University of Minnesota under a program implemented by the Fulbright Commission.

Bag-ao is one of the founders and a former executive director of BALAOD Mindanaw, a law group based in Mindanao, working for the advancement and protection of the rights of farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples and women’s and other marginalized groups through the creative and developmental use of the law.

She is a member of the independent secretariat to the peace talks between the Philippine government and the Revolutionary Worker’s Party of Mindanao (RPMM) that successfully 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 a 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 DAR to proceed with the acquisition and distribution of lands to farmer-beneficiaries despite injunction orders issued by regular courts.

Bag-ao led the Alternative Law Groups (ALG) as a convenor in 2005-2006. The ALG is a coalition of 20 alternative legal resource non-government organizations engaged in developmental lawyering in different parts of the country. Under her leadership, the ALG implemented a program in partnership with the Supreme Court which complemented its Action Program on Judicial Reform and resulted in the Supreme Court’s programs on access to justice by the poor.

She  was the lead counsel in the Sumilao Farmers’ case wherein  indigenous farmers  walked for 1,700 kilometers from Bukidnon, Mindanao to Manila to claim rights to their lands under agrarian reform against one of the biggest corporations in the Philippines.  With the help of  church leaders, an agreement was signed, giving back to the farmers their land. She also became one of the counsels for the Banasi Farmers of Camarines Sur who have successfully reclaimed their rights in 2008 and the Calatagan Farmers of Batangas.

On June 20, 2010, Bag-ao was sworn in as the second representative of Akbayan Party in the 15th Philippine Congress. She is the current vice chairperson of the House Committee on Agrarian Reform. She is one of the champions of Kaya Natin, a non-government organization composed mostly of government officials who advocate good governance and ethical leadership. She is also one of only two lady public prosecutors in the impeachment trial of convicted Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Because of her work with the Sumilao Farmers, Bag-ao was awarded the 2008 Frederik Ozanam Award. She is also the recipient of the 2010 Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) Award in Alternative Lawyering.

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