Arlene "Kaka" J. Bag-ao (born July 3, 1969) is a Filipino human rights lawyer and agrarian reform advocate who served as Governor of the Dinagat Islands from 2019 to 2022. Bag-ao additionally served as the representative for the lone district of the Dinagat Islands from 2013 until 2019. She has been dubbed as the 'Dragon Slayer' after consecutively defeating two of the most prominent members of the influential Ecleo political dynasty of the Dinagat Islands.
Education
Born in Manila, but raised in Loreto, Surigao del Norte (now part of Dinagat Islands), Bag-ao took her elementary education at Loreto Central Elementary School. She then took her secondary education at Southeastern College in Pasay. Bag-ao earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the De La Salle University in 1989, and her Juris Doctor (JD) degree from the Ateneo Law School of the Ateneo de Manila University in 1993, where she became a Judge de Veyra Scholarship Awardee and an Ateneo School of Law Scholarship Awardee. 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 of the United States of America.
Early career
Alternative lawyer
Bag-ao is one of the founders and the former Executive Director of BALAOD Mindanaw, a law group based in Mindanao working for the advancement and protection of the rights of farmers, fisherfolks, indigenous peoples and women's and other marginalized groups through the creative and developmental use of the law.
As an alternative lawyer, she is also involved in policy reform both at the local and national levels, working with different advocacy groups and law school based organizations in the country. She provides paralegal training and legal clinics to grassroots organizations and has won cases with them.
Bag-ao is a member of the independent secretariat to the peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Revolutionary Worker's Party of Mindanao (RPMM) that facilitated the signing of the agreement on the cessation of hostilities and the agreement to integrate community consultations as an essential component of the peace process.
In 2004, Bag-ao was asked to become the special consultant to the Secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform and facilitated the awarding of numerous land titles to farmer-beneficiaries. She was also responsible for the formulation and issuance of a Memorandum Circular — later affirmed by the Supreme Court — requiring the DAR to proceed with the acquisition and distribution of lands to farmer-beneficiaries despite injunction orders issued by regular courts. Bag-ao provided leadership for the Alternative Law Groups (ALG), as a Convenor in 2005-2006 and as a Council Member thereafter.
The ALG is a coalition of twenty (20) alternative legal resource non-government organizations engaged in developmental lawyering in different parts of the country. Under Bag-ao's leadership, the ALG implemented a program in partnership with the Supreme Court which complemented its Action Program on Judicial Reform and resulted in the Supreme Court's programs on access to justice by the poor. The ALG also pushed for the enactment of several social legislations, including the enactment of the Juvenile Justice Law and the Supreme Court ruling on the indefeasibility of titles issued under the agrarian reform program.
Bag-ao was the lead counsel in the Sumilao Farmers' case, a case of indigenous farmers who walked for 1,700 kilometers from Bukidnon to Manila to claim rights to their lands under agrarian reform against one of the biggest corporations in the Philippines. The Sumilao Farmers' case generated national and international attention and support. The case also inspired the Church to shepherd their cause and eventually resulted in an agreement under which the farmers would be given back their land.
Political career
Congressional career
Akbayan Representative (2010-2013) On 30 June 2010, Bag-ao was sworn in as the second representative of Akbayan Party in the 15th Philippine Congress.