Alan Peter Cayetano

Alan Peter Cayetano is a senator in the 19th Congress, serving his third term since 2007.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from University of the Philippines (UP) and his Juris Doctor degree from Ateneo de Manila School of Law. Cayetano comes from a political family: his father was the late senator Rene Cayetano, his sister Pia is an incumbent senator, his youngest brother Lino was a former Taguig City mayor, while the current mayor is his wife Lani.

Cayetano, a lawyer, first entered politics in 1992 as a councilor of Taguig. He would later become municipal vice mayor in 1995 and then representative of the lone district of Taguig-Pateros in the House of Representatives in 1998.

He served in the lower chamber for three consecutive terms until 2007, and for another term from 2019 to 2022, during which he became the 22nd speaker of the House of Representatives – but for just over a year. In 2020, he “resigned” as speaker minutes after lawmakers ousted him and proclaimed his rival Lord Allan Velasco as their new leader. He was supposed to share terms with Velasco but the deal fell through, with Cayetano saying he may have “misunderstood” then-president Rodrigo Duterte’s will on the supposed deal.

During his term as speaker, Cayetano also faced criticism over his chairmanship of the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee and the committee’s blunder-filled hosting of the 2019 SEA Games.

He joined the Senate in 2007 and was reelected for another term in 2013. However, he left the upper chamber in 2017 when he was appointed foreign secretary by Duterte – his running mate in the 2016 elections – after Cayetano lost the vice presidential race to Leni Robredo. He served in the Cabinet for just over a year, resigning in 2018 to run in the 2019 elections.

Cayetano served as both majority and minority leader in the Senate and led the powerful blue ribbon committee from 2007 to 2009. He currently chairs the Senate committees on accounts; higher, technical and vocational education; and science and technology.

He was a proponent of laws on education such as the UP Charter and the Iskolar ng Bayan Act, and laws on the rights of persons with disabilities, such as the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons.