Kaka Bag-ao

Arlene "Kaka" J. Bag-ao (born July 3, 1969) is a Filipino human rights lawyer and agrarian reform advocate who is a member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines since 2010. Currently, she serves as the Representative of the Lone District of Dinagat Islands.

Education

Raised in Loreto, Surigao del Norte (now part of Dinagat Islands), Bag-ao earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the De La Salle University, and her Juris Doctor (JD) degree from the Ateneo de Manila Law School. She passed the Philippine Bar Examinations in 1994. She was a Law and Human Rights Humphrey Fellow — in the Academic Year 2006-2007 - at the University of Minnesota, under a program implemented by the Fulbright Commission.

Career

As an alternative lawyer

Bag-ao believes that alternative lawyering is not simply a career but an advocacy for a particular way of life for lawyers and legal advocates; alternative lawyering is a life that is not based on sacrifices and compromises, but a choice and a lifelong commitment.