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Erin Tañada
Lorenzo "Erin" Reyes Tañada III (Tagalog: [tɐˈɲada], born August 16, 1963[1]) is a Filipino lawyer, broadcaster, and human rights and labor rights advocate who has served as a Deputy Speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives.[2] A member of the Liberal Party, he was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2004, as the representative of the 4th District of Quezon Province. He is particularly known for being the author of "Anti-Torture Act of 2009" (Republic Act No. 9749), the "Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity" (Republic Act No. 9851), and the "Renewable Energy Act of 2008" (RA 9513) as well as for his strong advocacy of the Freedom of Information Bill.[2] He formerly served as the manager for news and public affairs of UNTV-37 and host for several programs of the said station. Early life and careerErin Tañada is a grandson of the late Senator Lorenzo M. Tañada and the eldest child of former Senator Wigberto E. Tañada, the Senator who led the fight to rid the country of the U.S. military bases in Clark and Subic.[3] He is the eldest of the four children of Wigberto and Nanay Zeny, along with younger siblings Toby, Marites and Trina.[citation needed] His exposure to public service brought him to the parliament of the streets during the latter part of the Martial Law years. Tañada was a college student at Ateneo de Manila University where he actively updated his fellow students on political developments. When former Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr. was assassinated in 1983, he joined the university's Task Force Ninoy, a group supporting the advocacies of Ninoy Aquino. He finished his legal studies at the Manuel L. Quezon University - School of Law, and with a never give up attitude, passed the Philippine Bar Examination on his third try. He would later practice law at the Tañada, Vivo and Tan law office.[3] Political careerTañada started his political career by winning the seat of the fourth district of Quezon Province in the House of Representatives in 2004. He was the Assistant Majority Leader of the 13th Congress, the Chairman of the House of Representatives' Committee on Human Rights of the 14th Congress, and the Deputy Speaker of the 15th Congress. He was re-elected unopposed for his third term as Congressman. While he eyed the Speakership of the 15th Congress, he gave way to Quezon City representative Feliciano Sonny Belmonte.[4] He was at the forefront of the second high government official to ever be impeached, Philippine Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, for betrayal of the public trust. The House of Representatives successfully impeached Gutierrez in March 2011, with him being one of the representatives that defended the impeachment on the floor, and among the 212 representatives that voted to impeach her.[5] He was a spokesperson of the prosecution during the impeachment of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona.[6] As Congressman for three consecutive terms, his advocacies include having -
Tañada ran during the May 13, 2019 senatorial election as part of the Otso Diretso slate, the entire slate however lost amid a contentious race that culminated in a 7-hour freeze of the transmission of the counting of votes. On July 19, 2019, the PNP–Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) filed charges against members of the Otso Diretso opposition for "sedition, cyber libel, libel, estafa, harboring a criminal, and obstruction of justice".[7][8] On February 10, 2020, they were cleared of all charges.[9] For the 2022 General Elections, Former Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada served as the campaign manager[10] of the Team Robredo-Pangilinan (TRoPa) Senatorial Slate which produced three winning candidates, he is quoted during the campaign with the statement, "“Kahit ano pa ang kulay mo, kung ikaw ay para sa pag-usad ng ating bansa sa ilalim ng isang gobyernong tapat, welcome ka!” References
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