Akbayan Representative (2010-2013)
On 30 June 2010,Bag-ao was sworn in as the second representative [6] of Akbayan Party in the 15th Philippine Congress.
Together with fellow Akbayan Representative Walden Bello,she was the author of numerous progressive bills in Congress such as House Bill 3763 [7] (Minerals Management Bill),House Bill 513 [8] (Reproductive Health Bill),House Bill 468 [9] (Sangguniang Kabataan Reform and Empowerment Bill),House Bill 515 [10] (Anti-Discrimination Bill),House Bill 5312 (Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Bill),and House Bill 4268 (Healthy Beverages Options Bill or the 'Chip's Bill').
Bag-ao was a principal author of Republic Act 10354 [11] or the Reproductive Health Law. She was also the principal author of House Bill 6545 [12] or the National Land Use Bill,which was passed by the House of Representatives.
Bag-ao was the vice-chairperson of the House Committee on Agrarian Reform. She is one of the champions of Kaya Natin, a nongovernment organization founded by the late Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo that advocates good governance and ethical leadership. She is also one of only two women public prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. [13]
Dinagat Islands Representative (2013-2019)
At the May 2013 general elections,Bag-ao was elected representative of the Lone District of Dinagat Islands,edging out Dinagat municipal mayor Gwendolyn Ecleo with 3,248 votes. [16] Bag-ao was dubbed as a 'Dragon Slayer' for defeating a political behemoth in her province. [17]
In the 16th Congress,she was elected as the Chairperson of the Special Committee on Land Use. [18]
She was the principal author of several legislative measures,such as the proposed National Land Use Act,the People's Freedom of Information Act,the Anti-Discrimination Bill,and the Agrarian Reform Commission Bill. [19]
In November 2015,she,along with fellow legislators Rep. Leni Robredo (3rd District of Camarines Sur),Rep. Bolet Banal (3rd District of Quezon City),and Rep. Teddy Baguilat (Lone District of Ifugao),introduced a new proposed measure entitled the Open Door Policy Bill, [20] which seeks to prohibit government offices from denying citizens access to front line services and public meetings on the basis of attire. The bill gained international recognition when it was featured in Time Magazine. [21]
In January 2016,the Sangguniang Kabataan Reform Act was passed into law. [22] Bag-ao is one of its principal authors in the House of Representatives through House Bill No. 109. [23]
In the May 2016 elections,Bag-ao was reelected as representative of the lone district of Dinagat Islands,defeating this time Gwendolyn Ecleo's older sibling,Jade Ecleo,who was the province's former governor. She was again lauded as a 'Dragon Slayer' for defeating the two most prominent members of the Ecleo political dynasty in the province. [17]
Bag-ao pushed for the Anti-Discrimination Bill (now known as the SOGIE Equality Bill) to be passed into law in the House of Representatives. Fellow congresswoman Geraldine Roman,the first transgender congressional representative in the country,called her the "heart and soul" of the Bill. Bag-ao was the pioneer of the Equality Champions Coalition in Congress,along with Senator Risa Hontiveros.
In March 2017,Bag-ao voted against the re-imposition of the death penalty in the Philippines. The ruling PDP-Laban party stripped her committee chairmanship on People's Participation afterwards. She later said that she voted "no" because of her principle and her belief that the death penalty is always inhumane and wrong. [24]
In September 2017,Bag-ao voted against a House budget ruling that gave one thousand pesos (around 20 dollars) for the 2018 budget of the Commission on Human Rights. Bag-ao was one of the only 32 lawmakers to vote against the budget. The budget,however passed in the House after more than a hundred government-allied lawmakers voted in its favor. [25] Public outraged erupted afterwards,condemning the budget cut for a commission responsible for looking at the human rights violations of the government. Protests were held in various cities nationwide. The budget was eventually restored to its original amount after a few days. [26]
On the same month,after 17 years of political limbo,the SOGIE Equality Bill finally passed in the House of Representatives under Bag-ao's principal authorship. [27] Bag-ao was the vice-chairperson of the House Committees on Ecology,Labor and Employment,and Population and Family Relations. She had influential political powers on the Committees on Women and Gender Equality,Natural Resources,Mindanao Affairs,Human Rights,Justice,and Constitutional Amendments,among many others. [27]
In October 2017,she was one of only two House committee members who voted against the sufficiency of the grounds to impeach Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno. Bag-ao argued that many of the allegations being thrown at the Chief Justice were not sufficient and not even grounds for impeachment. [28]
