Francis Pangilinan

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The Honorable Francis Pangilinan
Official portrait
Senator of the Philippines
Incumbent
Assumed office June 30, 2016
In office June 30, 2001 – June 30, 2013
Chair of the Philippine Senate Agriculture and Food Committee
In office July 25, 2016 – February 27, 2017
Preceded by	Cynthia Villar
Succeeded by	Cynthia Villar
In office July 26, 2010 – June 30, 2013
Preceded by	Loren Legarda
Succeeded by	Cynthia Villar
Chair of the Philippine Senate Agrarian Reform Committee
In office February 2, 2009 – July 26, 2010
Preceded by	Gregorio Honasan
Succeeded by	Gregorio Honasan
Chairman of Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization
In office May 6, 2014 – September 15, 2015
President	Benigno Aquino III
Succeeded by	Fredelita Guiza
Senate Majority Leader
In office June 1, 2004 – November 17, 2008
President	Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
Preceded by	Loren Legarda
Succeeded by	Juan Miguel Zubiri
Member of the Quezon City Council from the 4th District
In office 1988 – June 30, 1992
Personal details
Born	Francis Pancratius Nepomuceno Pangilinan (1963-08-24) August 24, 1963 (age 58) Manila, Philippines
Political party	Liberal Party (2001–present)
Other political affiliations	LDP (1988–1992)
Spouse(s)	Sharon Cuneta ​ (m. 1996)​
Relations	Gab Valenciano (nephew) Gary Valenciano (brother-in-law) Maricel Laxa (sister-in-law) Pablo Cuneta (father-in-law) Helen Gamboa (aunt-in-law)
Children	4 (incl. KC Concepcion, Frankie Pangilinan)
Residence	Quezon City
Alma mater	University of the Philippines Diliman Harvard University
Profession	Lawyer
Net worth	₱20 million[1] (2019)
Signature
Website	[1]

Francis Pancratius "Kiko" Nepomuceno Pangilinan (Tagalog: [paŋɪˈlinɐn]; born August 24, 1963) is a Filipino lawyer and politician who is currently serving as a Senator of the Philippines since 2016, having previously served from 2001 to 2013. Pangilinan's political career began as a student activist in 1985, on the eve of the People Power Revolution. In the Senate, he served as Senate Majority Leader from 2004 to 2008.^[2] In May 2014, Pangilinan was appointed Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization by President Benigno Aquino III.^[3] Pangilinan ran for senator again in 2016 under the Liberal Party, placing 9th out of 12 winning candidates.^[4] He is currently the president of the party.

Early life[]

Francis Pancratius Nepomuceno Pangilinan was born on August 24, 1963, in Manila^[5] to Donato Tongol Pangilinan, Jr., an engineer and entrepreneur from Pampanga, and Emma Monasterial Nepomuceno, a public school teacher from Nueva Ecija and Marinduque. He has eight siblings.^[6]

As a varsity athlete, he was an NCAA and UAAP track & field and Volleyball gold and silver medalist in the 80s. He ran the 400-meter hurdles and the 4 × 400 m relay in the La Salle HS Track & Field team and played HS and College Varsity Volleyball for La Salle and UP.

As a student activist against the Marcos dictatorship, he ran and won as councilor of the UP University Student Council under the student party SAMASA (Sandigan para sa Mag-aaral at Sambayanan or Pillar for Students and the People) in 1985. He was later elected chairperson of the UP USC and became the first student representative at the UP Board of Regents.

Pangilinan first made his mark as a young lawyer giving free legal assistance on-air and closely monitored case progress through the television program Hoy Gising! over ABS-CBN where he was a co-anchor and segment host. He also anchored radio programs, including Batas and Relos Report with Atty. Kiko over DZMM, programs aimed at making the Philippine's legal court system more understandable to the masses by increasing their understanding of their rights and duties under the law.

As a writer had an opinion column in the Times-Journal in the 80s and the Manila Times in the 90s.

As an educator and academician, he taught constitutional, labor and civil law at the Ateneo de Manila University from 1993 to 2000.

In 1997, he left the country for Boston, Massachusetts, along with his wife Sharon Cuneta and daughter KC, to pursue his Master of Public Administration at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government where he graduated with a general average of A-.^[7]

After an 18-month hiatus from local broadcast media, he returned by conceptualizing and then hosting “Barangay Dos”, a service-oriented television program aired over ABS-CBN, dedicated to finding solutions to the everyday problems of the common Filipinos. The program established him as an intelligent, articulate, working, and involved lawyer and a media personality.^[8]

He led his Senate Volleyball team to win the championship in the Senate Olympics held last July 2008.

Education[]

He completed his elementary education at La Salle Green Hills in 1977. He completed his secondary education still in La Salle Green Hills in 1981.

He finished his college education and graduated from University of the Philippines Diliman with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Major in Comparative Literature.^[9] He was a member of Upsilon Sigma Phi while in attendance there.^[10][11] He also finished his Bachelor of Laws from the College of Law of the University of the Philippines.^[12]

He served as chairman of the UP Diliman University Student Council in 1986 under the student political party SAMASA. He was the first Student Regent of the UP Board of Regents in 1987. He was elected Philippine representative to the Committee on Youth Cooperation of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

In 1997, he finished his post-graduate studies at the Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government with a degree of Master of Science in Public Administration with an area of concentration in Strategic Management.

Political career[]

Quezon City[]

He believes in active citizenship, which is why his civic affairs involvement began even as a student in high school. He has over 20 years of civic and public service experience. He entered mainstream politics in 1988 in the first free electoral exercise after the Marcos dictatorship. He was elected the youngest councilor of Quezon City from the 4th district.^[13] During his stint as QC councilor, he saw the need to unite and develop young legislators committed to strong, principled leadership among young legislators. He thus founded and established the National Movement of Young Legislators (NMYL), where he became founding president. In 1992, he unsuccessfully ran in the congressional elections in Quezon City.

The Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations (TAYO) Awards, established in 2002 to recognize young people's initiatives in public service and nation-building, was his brainchild.

He remained an active organizer of multi-sectoral groups fighting for the return of decency, competence, and accountability to national leadership.

Senate[]

Pangilinan was elected to the senate in 2001 and was re-elected six years thereafter. In 2002, he founded the Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations (TAYO) Awards with the National Youth Commission (NYC) Chairperson Bam Aquino. The TAYO Awards Foundation, Inc. is the country's only award-giving body that recognizes and supports youth organizations' outstanding contributions and efforts in making a difference in their communities.^[14]

In his first term at the Senate, he championed the plight of the most vulnerable children and authored and shepherded the measure that would keep children in conflict with the law out of cells that detained mostly adult hardcore criminals. He recognized that the country's judicial system needs to be overhauled. He ensured that the salaries and benefits of judges and prosecutors were increased so that the best and the brightest lawyers would be drawn to public service.

He was first elected as Senate Majority Leader in 2004. On July 23, 2007, Jinggoy Estrada was voted Senate president pro tempore, while Pangilinan was the majority leader following the assumption of Manuel Villar to the chamber's leadership of the 14th Congress.^[15]

Formed in 2008, Pangilinan created the Judicial Executive Legislative Advisory and Consultative Council, first proposed on the July 16–17, 2007 Manila Hotel Summit on extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines.^[16]

When he chaired the Senate Committee on Agriculture in 2010, he was able to speak to farmers all over the country. He was inspired to start his own small farm, from which he learned this insight: the success of the country lies in the success of the poorest in Philippine society—our farmers and fishers, our food producers. In the same year, Pangilinan was also the principal author of RA 11511, Amending RA 10068 or known as the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010. This aims to further promote the development of organic agricultural practices in the country, as well as helping and protecting the indigenous organic farmers.^[17]

After winning in the 2016 senatorial elections, Pangilinan continued his advocacy in agriculture. He was part of the minority bloc in the Senate together with Senators Franklin Drilon, Risa Hontiveros, Leila de Lima, and former Senators Bam Aquino and Antonio Trillanes.^[18] His most recent law was RA 11321 or the Sagip Saka Act, which he principally authored and principally sponsored in the Senate.^[19] Sagip Saka aims to increase farmers' income by empowering them and connecting them to the market. This advocacy aims to boost incomes for both fisherfolk and farmers through entrepreneurship by mandating government agencies to buy produce directly from them, eliminating middlemen that raise food prices.^[20] The law was signed on April 17, 2019.^[21] Pangilinan was also the principal author of RA 11478, which would increase the bed capacity of the Bicol Medical Center from five hundred (500) beds to one thousand (1,000) beds. This also included upgrading its service facilities and professional health care services and authorizing the increase of its medical workforce complement.^[17]

In 2020, he authored the Republic Act No. 11524, Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund Act which seeks to create a trust fund for coconut farmers to be used for several purposes such as management, utilisation, and reconstitution for the purpose the Philippine Coconut Authority Board.^[22] He had also co-authored laws pertaining to education, such as Republic Act No. 11476, the GMRC and Values Education Act, which institutionalized good manners and right conduct and values education in the K-12 curriculum, and Republic Act No. 11510, the Alternative Learning System Act, which institutionalises the alternative learning system in Basic Education for out-of-school children.

Most recently, he co-authored the COVID Vaccination Program Act of 2021 or Republic Act No. 11525, aiming to expedite the procurement and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across the country.

Furthermore, Pangilinan supports various Senate Bills that are aligned with his advocacy on the welfare of the nation, these include Senate Bill No. 776 (Rural Employment Assistance Act), Senate Bill No. 1759 (Pandemic Protection Act), and the Reform Coalition (People Empowerment and an Active Citizenry).

Aquino cabinet[]

In May 2014, Pangilinan was appointed as Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernisation - a Cabinet-level position under the Office of the President of the Philippines - by President Benigno Aquino III.^[3] In September 2015, Pangilinan announced his resignation from the post.^[23]

As OPAFSAM head, he pushed for the creation of the coco levy trust fund for coconut farmers—in an attempt to correct the injustice started by Marcos and his cronies who collected taxes from the farmers purportedly to develop the industry. In 2016, he pursued the same advocacy in his third term at the Senate. But after he and fellow opposition senators were removed from the Senate majority and subsequently lost the chairpersonship of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, he continued to defend the coco levy trust fund bill with new committee chairperson Sen. Cynthia Villar agreeing to let him finish work he has started.

In October 2016, he was appointed interim Liberal Party president. His appointment became permanent in August 2017.

Personal life[]

He married actress and television personality Sharon Cuneta on April 28, 1996.^[24] Together, they have two daughters and one adopted son. He is also the stepfather of actress and singer KC Concepcion, Cuneta's daughter whom he legally adopted.^[25]

Pangilinan and Cuneta own Sweet Spring Country Farm, an all-organic farm in Alfonso, Cavite.^[26]

Two other Pangilinan siblings also have connections in the local show business via marriage. His sister, Angeli, is a talent manager who is married to singer Gary Valenciano since 1984. Another sibling, Anthony, a TV host, is married to a former beauty queen and actress, Maricel Laxa.

References[]

External links[]

• Senator Kiko Pangilinan – Senate of the Philippines
• Official website
• Kiko Pangilinan's Facebook Page
• Verified Francis Pangilinan on Twitter