Alan Peter Cayetano

Alan Peter Schramm Cayetano (Tagalog pronunciation: [kajɛˈtano]; born October 28, 1970) is a Filipino lawyer and diplomat serving as a Senator since 2022 and previously from 2007 to 2017.

Just a year after he entered UP Diliman in 1989, he ran for a post in the UP Diliman University Student Council and won.

He was raised in Parañaque and moved to Taguig in 1991.

Cayetano, then a junior year college student at University of the Philippines, was elected as councilor of the then-municipality of Taguig in 1992.

Elected at the age of 21, he was one of the youngest councilors in the country.

He became Taguig's Majority Floor Leader and held various positions, such as the vice-chairperson of the People's Law Enforcement Board.

From 1992 to 1993, Cayetano concurrently served as the chairman of the National Capital Region Chapter of the National Movement of Young Legislators.

In college, he studied political science at the University of the Philippines Diliman and graduated in 1993.

His college days played an important role in his political career.

Apart from having a senator as a father, it was in UP where he got his first taste of politics.

Cayetano was elected vice mayor of Taguig in the 1995 local elections and served for one term.

He then finished his Juris Doctor degree from the Ateneo de Manila University School of Law in 1997, graduating 2nd Honors (silver medalist).

He also served as the Representative of Taguig–Pateros from 1998 to 2007 and from 2019 to 2022 and was the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2019 until his resignation in 2020.

Although he inherited United States citizenship by descent, he relinquished his U.S. citizenship in 1998.

Cayetano resides with his family in Bagumbayan, Taguig.

His wife, Lani, is the incumbent Mayor of Taguig and formerly represented the 1st and 2nd districts of Taguig–Pateros at the House of Representatives.

His older sister, Pia, is an incumbent Senator and formerly represented the 2nd district of Taguig at the House of Representatives, where she was also a Deputy Speaker.

His youngest brother, Lino, is a film and television director as well as a former congressman and mayor of Taguig, while his other brother Ren is a former councilor of Muntinlupa.

Cayetano completed both his elementary and secondary education at De La Salle Santiago Zobel School.

Thereafter, he was admitted to the Philippine bar in 1998.

Most of the laws authored by Cayetano focus on education, persons with disabilities rights, political reforms, health, and environment.

Cayetano ran for the House of Representatives of the Philippines in 1998 as the representative of the lone district of Taguig–Pateros under the Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino.

Listed below are the laws that he authored and co-authored during his first two terms as a Philippine Senator (2007-2017).

Cayetano ran for senator in 2007 under the Genuine Opposition coalition and won, placing 9th out of the 12 seats.

He was the Senate Minority Leader from 2010 to 2013, and later Senate Majority Leader from 2013 to 2016.

He was elected Senate Minority Leader for the 15th Congress in 2010.

He was the youngest elected representative at the 11th Congress at age 27.

In his first term as a neophyte legislator, Cayetano immediately held major roles and functions, such as being voted as the assistant majority leader.

He was also chairman of the Oversight Committee on Bases Conversion and Sub-Committee on New Schools (Committee on Education), and the vice-chairman of the Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms.

During his second term in the 12th Congress, Cayetano became deputy majority leader and the vice-chairman of the Committee on Rules.

On his last term in the 13th Congress, he served as the Senior Deputy Minority Leader and an ex officio member of all standing House committees.

He also became a fierce critic of then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

He was re-elected to the Senate in 2013, running under the Team PNoy administration coalition.

He also served as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018 in the cabinet of President Rodrigo Duterte, after unsuccessfully running for vice president in the 2016 elections as Duterte's running mate.

Cayetano was born into and raised in a political family currently based in Taguig.

His father was the late former senator Rene Cayetano; his older sister, Pia, is an incumbent senator; his younger brother, Lino, is a former mayor of Taguig; and his wife, Lani, is the incumbent mayor of Taguig and served as the representative of the city's 1st district (which also includes Pateros) and 2nd district.

Cayetano was the chairman of the organizing committee for the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

During his time as speaker, one of the most controversial issues was the shutdown and the denial of franchise renewal of one of the country's biggest media networks, ABS-CBN, due to a number of issues surrounding the said television network.

In 2023, Cayetano is one of the hosts for the GMA public service program Cayetano in Action with Boy Abunda.

Cayetano was born in Mandaluyong to lawyer Renato "Compañero" Cayetano and German-American former school teacher Sandra Schramm.