Edcel Lagman


Edcel C. Lagman is a Filipino human rights lawyer and politician from the province of Albay. He was elected as a member of the House in 1987 up to the present. He served as Minority Floor Leader of the House of Representatives of the Philippines until 2012, when he resigned the office. Lagman is one of the key Liberal Party figures in the House of Representatives, having supported the Reproductive Health Bill, the SOGIE Equality Bill, the Free Tertiary Education Act, the Anti-Dynasty Bill, and the Freedom of Information Bill. He is also the principal author of the Divorce Bill, the Human Rights Defenders Bill, the Prevention of Teenage Pregnancy Bill, and the Anti-Child Marriage Bill.
Lagman was instrumental to the abolition of the death penalty in the Philippines in 2006 and continues to oppose proposals to reinstate capital punishment in the country. Lagman is also the principal author of a triumvirate of human rights laws, namely the Anti-Torture Act of 2009, the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012, and the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013.

Education

Lagman has degrees in political science from the University of the Philippines Diliman where he became a member of the Alpha Phi Beta Fraternity. He eventually finished his Bachelor of Laws at the University of the Philippines College of Law.

Political life

Lagman has been elected to a total of eight terms as a Member of the House of Representatives, representing the 1st District of Albay. He first served from 1987 to 1998, and then from 2004 to 2013, and from 2016 to the present. His daughter Krisel B. Lagman-Luistro represented the district from 1998 to 2004. In 2013 he was succeeded by his son, Edcel Lagman, Jr.
Lagman was a member of Lakas-CMD, and is the main proponent of the Reproductive Health Bill. He is now a member of the Liberal Party and is one of the leading and most credible opposition members of the House of Representatives.

Personal life

Lagman is the elder brother of Filemon "Popoy" Lagman, the founder of the Partido ng Manggagawa, and who was assassinated in 2001. Another brother, Hermon, was a political activist who disappeared during the martial law government of President Ferdinand Marcos. Lagman is married to Maria Cielo B. Lagman and has seven children.