SENADO 2016, sino nga ba?

Ana Theresia "Risa" Hontiveros-Baraquel

Liberal Party

Risa Hontiveros was Akbayan party-list’s representative in the 13th and 14th Congress where she was known to staunchly support the Reproductive Health Bill, as it would allow for plenty of programs that would empower women and make known their rights. She also helped pass the Cheaper Medicines Law and the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER) Law among others.

Hontiveros has been known to advocate for gender and women’s rights, good governance, health and peace. Since 2005 she has raised four children on her own as her husband Frank Baraquel, who was a police superintendent in the Philippine National Police, had a heart attack, and so she has since then tried to improve the plight of solo parents.

But in spite of these triumphs and attempts to push forward her advocacies, Risa Hontiveros was unsuccessful in her last two shots of bagging a seat in the senate. In 2010, she almost made the top 12 but fell short by only over a million votes. However, in 2013 she landed only on the 17th spot. Her third attempt will be in the May 2016 elections, still under the Liberal Party, in the “Daang Matuwid” coalition with other senate veterans, former cabinet members, Aquino appointees along with others in the slate.

The latest Pulse Asia Survey puts her at 11th to 13th place and Hontiveros herself has said that she’s confident she will be part of the Magic 12 this time around.

Unlike in the past where many have criticized that her platforms or goals were all over the place, current Akbayan representative and coalition spokesman Barry Gutierrez said Hontiveros’ 2016 campaign is mainly focused on universal healthcare and anti-corruption.

It was in June 2015 when President Benigno Aquino III appointed Hontiveros as a director of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation. She then vowed to push for healthcare reforms and increase public spending on healthcare.

It may seem to most the Hontiveros has always been in politics, but not a lot know that way before getting a seat in public office, her spotlight was on stage when she started out as a budding theater artist.

She would sometimes joke to colleagues that in real life she was just one of Noel Cabangon’s backup singers and that she’d leave politics to get back to theater.

It was when she was a high school sophomore from St. Scholastica’s College Manila that she got to star alongside Lea Salonga, Monique Wilson and Raymond Lauchengo in a Sound of Music production. Her life in theater got cut short when she opted out of an audition for a spot in the musical South Pacific after she attended a forum on a nuclear-free Philippines with her mother. It was at that moment when was first introduced to activist works.

After graduating cum laude from Ateneo de Manila University with a degree in AB Social Sciences, Hontiveros went to become a media practitioner for around ten years before she got involved in politics.

She served as a producer and a host for a number of broadcast TV shows and even taught communication subjects in Ateneo for a time. In 1994, while she was a co-anchor in GMA Network News on Channel 7, Hontiveros won a Golden Dove Award for Best Female Newscaster from the KBP or Kapisasan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas.

Alongside her work in media, she served as the Secretary-General in the Coalition of Peace from 1988 to 1992.

In 2004, Risa Hontiveros graduated from the Asian Institute of Management with a diploma course in their Managing Arts Program, the same year she became a member of the Akbayan Citizens’ Action Party and Akbayan party-list’s representative to the House of Representatives.

After serving as representative in 2010, she became Akbayan’s party spokesperson until 2012, when she was appointed the party’s chairperson.

Sources:

(n.d.). Retrieved 2016, from PhilHealth: http://www.philhealth.gov.ph/about_us/bod/Board_CV_Hontiveros_HCPS.pdf

Bueza, M. (2015, October 14). Rappler. Retrieved 2016, from Rappler: http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections/2016/109225-risa-hontiveros-running-senator-3rd-time

Casauay, A. (2013, May 10). Rappler. Retrieved 2016, from Rappler: http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections-2013/18441-risa-hontiveros-senate-win-like-rh-bill-passage-uphill-but-possible

Cupin, B. (2015, October 13). Rappler. Retrieved 2016, from Rappler: http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections/2016/109068-risa-hontiveros-2016-senate

Hontiveros-Baraquel, R. (2012, April 22). Rappler. Retrieved 2016, from Rappler: http://www.rappler.com/thought-leaders/4184-a-feminist-in-the-house-of-binibining-pilipinas

PulseAsia Research Inc. . (2016). PulseAsia Research Inc. Retrieved 2016, from Pulse Asia: http://www.pulseasia.ph/

Rappler. (n.d.). Rappler. Retrieved 2016, from Rappler: http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections-2013/data/candidates/senator/risa-hontiveros

Viray, P. (2015, June 30). Philstar Global. Retrieved March 2, 2016, from Philstar: http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2015/06/30/1471755/risa-hontiveros-named-new-philhealth-director