ALAN CAYETANO
(ABS-CBN News, Based on Research by ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group)
Born on October 28, 1970 to former Senator Renato Cayetano and Sandra Schramm, Alan Peter Cayetano grew up involved in public service.
Cayetano's first taste of politics was at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, where he won as University Student Council councilor.
At the age of 22, he was named as the top councilor of the then Municipality of Taguig. In 1995, he was elected as Vice Mayor and served as a Congressman for the lone congressional district of Taguig and Pateros from 1998 to 2007 (three consecutive terms).
He first ran for the Senate in 2007 and won. He is currently serving his second consecutive term in the Senate. His term expires in 2019.
During his first term in the Senate, he became Chairman of the Blue Ribbon / Committee on Accountability of Public Officers, where he headed the investigation of the NBN-ZTE deal and steered the continuation of the Fertilizer Scam investigation. In the present Congress, Cayetano is Senate Minority Floor Leader.
SALN:
SALN (as of December 31, 2014)
Assets: P28.3 million
Liabilities: P5 million
Net worth: P23, 314, 540
ISSUES/CONTROVERSIES
ON THE BANGSAMORO BASIC LAW
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano is strongly opposed to the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law and the peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. He repeatedly questioned the sincerity of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in pursuing the peace process with the government following the January 25 Mamasapano clash.
ON GRAFT AND PLUNDER COMPLAINTS
On August 20, 2014, the Philippine Association for the Advocacy of Civil Liberties (PAACL), headed by Roderick Vera, the group’s president, filed three separate complaints against Alan Cayetano and his wife, Taguig Mayor Maria Laarni Cayetano: two graft complaints for the alleged misuse of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and one plunder complaint for the alleged hiring of ghost employees. Cayetano denied the allegations and accused the family of Vice President Jejomar Binay as being behind the complaint as Vera was a former classmate of Makati City Rep. Abigail Binay in law school. Moreover, the complaint was filed at the start of the hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chaired by Cayetano on the alleged overpriced Makati building that was constructed during Vice President Binay’s term as mayor.
ON HIS ACCUSATION AGAINST THE ARROYO FAMILY
In 2006, then Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano accused the family members of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of stashing millions of dollars of undeclared wealth on Hypovereinsbank, a bank based in Germany. Cayetano promised to resign once the German bank account of the Arroyo family is proven non-existent. In response to the request of the fact-finding team of the House Committee on Ethics, Former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo signed a bank waiver. At the same time, Mr. Arroyo flew to Germany and came home with a certificate from Hypovereinsbank stating that the Arroyo family does not maintain multi-million dollar accounts. Cayetano, however, dismissed the certificate and called it “worthless.” He insisted that Mr. Arroyo should submit it to the House Committee on Justice in an impeachment hearing so that Cayetano and his allies could counter it with evidence.
BILLS AUTHORED/ADVOCACIES
As chairman of the Committee on Public Information and Mass Media in the 14th Congress, Cayetano launched a campaign to make the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act a law.
In the 2013 elections, Cayetano’s platforms include price reduction of goods, creating more and better jobs, and raising the income of workers.
In the 16th Congress, some of the bills that Cayetano filed include Senate Bill No. 90 on freedom of information; S.B. No. 245, which aims to decriminalize libel and defamation; S.B. No. 246, which aims to allocate a special education fund for children with special needs; and S.B. 249, which aims to repeal sections 4(c)(4), 5, 6, and 7 of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012