SENADO 2016, sino nga ba?

Amid all the noise the pork barrel scam investigations were making in 2013, all eyes turned to lawyer Lorna Patajo-Kapunan in October when she decided to resign as counsel for the illegal detention case of the scam’s alleged mastermind, Janet Lim Napoles. Two years later, Kapunan again stirred public attention, but for a different reason: she claims to be the Filipinos’ ticket of hope.

 

“I am your ticket of hope. And if you don’t buy that ticket of hope, ‘wag po tayong magalit, ‘wag po nating sabihing wala nang pag-asa ang bayan natin (don’t get angry, don’t say there is no hope for our country),” she told the media after filing her certificate of candidacy (COC) for the Senate, likening the election to a lottery where “you will never win if you don’t buy a ticket.”

 

The 63-year-old lawyer, who runs with the campaign tagline, “Laban Para sa Karapatan (Fight for your Rights),” said she carries an agenda of “HOPE,” specifically: “honest government, opportunity for all, peace and prosperity, and education and environment.”

 

Kapunan, a lawyer for 37 years, is not new to the attention of the media, in fact she is known to have handled a number of controversial cases in the past, including those of celebrities James Yap, Hayden Kho, Rhian Ramos, Coco Martin and Liz Uy.

 

The most controversial one to date, however, is that of Napoles, which Kapunan later dropped, citing “differences in opinion” with another member of her client’s legal team, and that her client was “not being entirely truthful.”

 

“A client must never lie to (their) lawyer … a lawyer-client relationship is a relationship of trust and confidence,” she said in an interview with Rappler.

 

Putting off her involvement in Napoles’ case as “history” and shifting from lawyering to politics, Kapunan now aims to gain the public’s trust and confidence in her ability and qualification to become a legislator.

 

The University of the Philippines College of Law graduate said in an interview with GMA News that the public “recalls her for the wrong reasons,” pertaining to the controversial cases she handled.

                                                                                                                     

“When they talk about Atty. Kapunan and Napoles, people are forgetting that I surrendered her to the Palace,” Kapunan said in a Rappler report.

 

The high-profile lawyer has also worked on a discrimination case for over 15 years pro bono, for a group of flight attendants against the Philippine Airlines which implemented a forced-resignation policy among stewardesses 55 years and older and stewards 60 years and older. The Supreme Court decided in favor of Kapunan’s clients in May 2015, Inquirer reported.

 

Kapunan runs under Aksyon Demokratiko—the party of late former senator Raul Roco—which supports the tandem of Senators Grace Poe and Francis Escudero.

 

Kapunan said the other parties approached her earlier to run, but she decided to run under the Poe-Escudero team because as much as she “respects certain individuals” in the other parties, she “could not accept the fact that (she) had to keep silent” on the disbursement acceleration program (DAP) and priority development assistance fund (PDAF), among other issues, she said in an interview with Rappler.

 

Kapunan said special courts should be created just for DAP and PDAF cases to fast track their resolution, in an interview with GMA News.

 

Being an advocate for women’s rights, Kapunan is also among the senatorial candidates with a clear stand on divorce, supporting strongly one’s right to a “no-fault divorce,” meaning not having to go through the “painful” process of annulment.

 

If elected, Kapunan said she would also push for the amendment of the Family Code to recognize men who are victims of domestic abuse.