QUEZON City, Philippines (March 23) – Let’s get to know more about Senator Alan Peter Cayetano. A senator in his final term and running mate of Davao’s “Dirty Harry” Rodrigo Duterte, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano is a young veteran who aspire to take the second seat of power in our country. He took hold of different offices since he was 21, and made feats with his considered ‘young’ age in the political sphere.
The son of late Senator Renato “Compañero” Cayetano and German-American former school teacher Sandra Schramm Cayetano, Alan and his three other siblings all aspired to follow their father’s footsteps. Pia, the eldest, is also a senator. His two younger brothers also made their career in politics: Rene is a former councilor of Muntinlupa City and Lino is the incumbent representative of the 2nd district of Taguig. Alan’s wife, Maria Laarni Lopez Cayetano, is the current mayor of Taguig City.
At a springtime age of 21, he became a councilor of Taguig. He won as vice-mayor of the same city at 24 and became congressman of Taguig-Pateros district at 27. After nine years of being the representative of the lone district, he won a place at Senate in 2007 when he was 36 years old.
His achievements were always attached with the word ‘youngest’; he was the youngest Councilor of the country during his time, youngest vice-mayor of Taguig, youngest Representative of the 11th Congress, youngest Chair of Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, youngest contender for the Senate presidency and youngest Minority leader in the history of Senate. Alan garnered his Top Outstanding Young Men Award at the age of 36.
The Senator has authored 43 bills (6 of which passed into law) and co-authored 116 (46 of which have become law). Some of the promulgated laws are the following:
- Public Employment Service Office (PESO) Act
- Granting Additional Compensation In Form of Special Allowances for Justices, Judges and All other Positions in the Judiciary
- Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001
- The Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003
- An Act Governing the Establishment, Operations and Regulation of Lending Companies
- An Act To Strengthen The University of The Philippines As National University
- Anti-Camcording Act of 2010
- Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010
- Strengthening of the Magna Carta for PWDs
- An Act Providing for Mandatory Basic Immunization Services For Infants and Children
- Domestic Workers Act (Kasambahay Law)
His campaign platform, P.T.K. (Presyo, Trabaho, Kita), aims to reduce high prices of commodities, lack of jobs, and low income. Some of the specifics in its agenda are the following:
Presyo
- Reduce 12% VAT on oil
- Transparency in the increase of oil prices
Trabaho
- Create an Education-to-Employment system to avoid job mismatch.
- Investing on infrastructure to create more jobs and alternative sources of livelihood.
- Increased support on business process outsourcing (BPO) industry
- Increase on capital lending program supplementary to Conditional Cash Transfer to support local industries such as fishing, farming , furniture making and shoe making.
Kita
- Anti ‘5-6’ loan program.
- Increase basic salaries and benefits of government employees to lessen corruption and improve output.
(written by Rex Felix Salvador, edited by Jay Paul Carlos, additional research by Lovely Ann Cruz)
