Arlene "Kaka" J. Bag-ao is a human rights lawyer and advocate, and the second representative of Akbayan Party in the 15th Congress of the Philippines.[1]
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Kaka has a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a major in Political Science, from the De La Salle University, Philippines and a Juris Doctor (JD) degree from the Ateneo de Manila Law School, Philippines. 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.
Kaka 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 life-long commitment.
She is one of the founders and the former Executive Director of BALAOD Mindanaw, a law group based in Mindanao, Philippines 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, her work is not limited to litigating cases. 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. Committed to the goal of demystifying the law as a monopoly of lawyers and the formally educated, she provides paralegal training and legal clinics to grassroots organizations and has successfully won cases with them.
She 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 successfully 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, she 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.
She 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 Kaka’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.
She was the lead counsel in the Sumilao Farmers’ case, a case of indigenous farmers who walked for 1,700 kilometers from Bukidnon, Mindanao 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. She also became one of the counsels for the Banasi Farmers of Camarines Sur who have successfully reclaimed their rights in 2008 and the Calatagan Farmers of Batangas. Kaka and other co-counsels, together with Farmer Leaders, helped educate the Banasi Farmers on their rights and how they could fight for these peacefully. After they won the case, the Banasi Farmers continue to be partners in the implementation of agrarian reform and in pushing for good governance.
Because of her work with the Sumilao Farmers, she was awarded the 2008 Frederik Ozanam Award said to be “given to exemplary individuals who, in living out the demands of faith, justice, and love, have given distinctive and continued service to their brothers and sisters, especially the poor and suffering” during the Annual Academic Convocation of the Ateneo de Manila University on July 15, 2008.