Lorenzo Tañada III
Encyclopedia
Lorenzo "Erin" Reyes Tañada III (born August 16, 1963) is a Filipino
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 politician. A member of the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (Philippines)
The Liberal Party of the Philippines is a liberal party in the Philippines, founded by then senators Senate President Manuel Roxas, Senate President Pro-Tempore Elpidio Quirino, and former 9th Senatorial District Senator Jose Avelino, on November 24, 1945 by a breakaway Liberal group from the...

, he was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines
House of Representatives of the Philippines
The House of Representatives of the Philippines is the lower chamber of the...

 representing the 4th District of Quezon beginning in 2004. In 2010, he was appointed as one of the Deputy Speakers in the House of Representatives.

Early life and career

Erin as he is fondly called by friends, represents the third generation of Tañadas in the field of politics. He is the grandson of the "grand old man of Philippine politics" – the late Senator Lorenzo Tañada
Lorenzo Tañada
Lorenzo Martinez Tañada was a Filipino politician. Elected to the first Philippine Senate in 1947, he was the longest-serving senator in Philippine history. He served as a Philippine senator for 24 years.-Early life:...

 who is known for his fiery speeches, great oratorical and debating skills and fearless stand against the dictatorship of late President
President of the Philippines
The President of the Philippines is the head of state and head of government of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of the Philippine government and is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines...

 Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. was a Filipino leader and an authoritarian President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate...

, and the son of former Senator Wigberto Tañada
Wigberto Tañada
Wigberto "Ka Bobby" Ebarle Tañada, Sr. is a Filipino politician. He is member of the Liberal Party and a former member of the Senate of the Philippines and Philippine House of Representatives representing the Quezon's 4th District . He is the son of the the late former senator Lorenzo M...

, the Senator who led the fight to rid the country of the U.S. military bases in Clark and Subic. He is the eldest among the four children of Wigberto and Nanay Zeny, along with Toby, Mar and Trina.

During the Martial Law years
History of the Philippines (1965-1986)
This article covers the history of the Philippines during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos. The Marcos era includes the final years of the Third Republic and the entirety of the Fourth Republic .-Marcos Administration :...

, Tañada was a college student at Ateneo de Manila University
Ateneo de Manila University
The Ateneo de Manila University is a private teaching and research university run by the Society of Jesus in the Philippines. It began in 1859 when the City of Manila handed control of the Escuela Municipal de Manila in Intramuros, Manila, to the Jesuits...

. This is where he met Risa Hontiveros
Risa Hontiveros
Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel , is a Filipino activist, journalist, and politician who is serving her second term as the party-list representative of the Akbayan Citizens' Action Party to the Philippines' House of Representatives since 2004...

 as his first girlfriend, while actively updating his fellow students at political developments, joining the university's Task Force Ninoy, a group supporting the advocacy of Ninoy Aquino. He later passed the Philippine Bar Examination
Philippine Bar Examination
The Philippine Bar Examination is the professional licensure examination for lawyers in the Philippines.It is the only professional licensure exam in the country that is not supervised by the Professional Regulation Commission...

 on his third try. He would later practice law at the Tañada, Vivo and Tan law office.

Tañada is separated from his wife since 2010 and has custody of their children.

Political career

Tañada started his political career by winning the seat of the fourth district of Quezon in the House of Representatives
House of Representatives of the Philippines
The House of Representatives of the Philippines is the lower chamber of the...

 in 2004. Later on, he would become the chairman of Committee on Human Rights in the lower house. He is also the Vice-Chairman of the committees on Globalization and WTO and Peace, Reconciliation and Unity. In the 14th Congress
14th Congress of the Philippines
The Fourteenth Congress of the Philippines was the national legislature of the Republic of the Philippines, composed of the Philippine Senate and House of Representatives...

, Tañada was one of the sponsors of the Freedom of Information Bill, which was not enacted into law since it was not on the legislative agenda of the ruling Lakas Kampi CMD party.

He was re-elected unopposed as the Congressman of the 4th district of Quezon in the 2010 House of Representatives elections. On May 2010, he gave up his bid to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives to give way to Quezon City
Quezon City
Quezon City is the former capital and the most populous city in the Philippines. Located on the island of Luzon, Quezon City is one of the cities and municipalities that make up Metro Manila, the National Capital Region. The city was named after Manuel L...

 representative Sonny Belmonte. Belmonte would later appoint him as one of the Deputy Speakers.

At the beginning of the 15th Congress
15th Congress of the Philippines
The Fifteenth Congress of the Philippines is the current meeting of the national legislature of the Republic of the Philippines, composed of the Senate and House of Representatives...

 on July 2010, Tañada refiled the Freedom of Information Bill in the House of Representatives. On December 2010, he would be at the forefront in the impeachment
Impeachment of Merceditas Gutierrez
The Philippine Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez was impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of the office's alleged underperformance and failure to act on several cases during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo...

 of Philippine Ombudsman
Philippine Ombudsman
The Ombudsman of the Philippines is an ombudsman responsible for investigating and prosecuting Philippine government officials accused of crimes....

 Merceditas Gutierrez. Being Deputy Speaker, he was an ex-officio member of all House of Representatives committees, hence being able to attend and vote on the Committee of Justice, which approved the impeachment and named him as one of the sponsors. The House of Representatives successfully impeached Gutierrez on March 2011, with him being one of the representatives that defended the impeachment on the floor, and among the 212 representatives that voted on to impeach her.

Due to term limits (he is on his third consecutive and final term), he is considering a bid to be the third Tañada to be elected in the Senate in the 2013 election
Philippine Senate election, 2013
Election to the Senate of the Philippines will be held on Monday, May 13, 2013. This is to elect 12 of the 24 seats in the Senate. Together with those elected in 2010, they will comprise the 16th Congress. The senators elected in 2010 will serve until June 30, 2016, while the senators elected in...

.
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