Alan Peter Cayetano

Alan Peter Cayetano, son of former senator Rene Cayetano, is running for reelection this May 13.

A lawyer by profession, Cayetano first entered politics as a councilor of Taguig City in 1992. He climbed the political ladder one step at a time. He served as vice mayor from1995 to 1998. He then ran as district representative of Taguig and served for three consecutive terms. In 2007, Cayetano won a seat in senate.

He filed several resolutions that aimed to promote accountability and transparency in government. He endorsed the verified complaint for impeachment against then president Joseph Estrada during the 11th Congress and voted no to the 2005 & 2006 junking of the impeachment complaints against then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the 13th Congress.

But he became a household name when he headed the investigation on the NBN-ZTE deal and worked on the continuation of the investigation on the fertilizer scam, two major corruption scandals involving the Arroyo administration.

Cayetano also co-authored bills that were eventually passed into aw such as the: Philippine Clean Air Act, Anti-Camcording Act of 2009, Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2009, Magna Carta for Disabled Persons.

The Cayetanos are among those who are considered as a relatively new political dynasty.

His sister Pia Cayetano eventually joined the Philippine senate in 2004. His brother Lino Cayetano, who is a film and TV director, is also running as congressman. His wife is seeking reelection as mayor of Taguig.

Though political dynasties in the Philippines have been here for centuries already, it became one of the most talked about election-related issue this year. But Cayetano said there is nothing wrong with political dynasties and even called anti-political dynasty advocates as “wrong, unfair.”

He was quoted in news reports saying, “the question here is who is corrupt and who isn’t. It would be better to have a family of politicians in the government with clean track record than a single government official who is so corrupt.

Cayetano, true to his platform of pursuing accountability and transparency, is a staunch supporter of the Freedom of Information Act.

He also voted for the controversial Reproductive Health Bill. He is also against the contractualization of labor.

As earlier mentioned, Cayetano is not in favor of the anti dynasty law and, on the other hand, voted for the passing of another controversial law, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, which, according to its critics, is tantamount to “electronic martial law.”

Surprisingly, he has no stand on proposals to abolish the pork barrel system, according to ABS-CBN’s infographic titled “How they stand.”