MANILA, Philippines—“It’s been a far from perfect life, fraught with accident—sometimes happily so—and misadventure.”
This was how former Senator Edgardo J. Angara also known as “SEJA” described his journey in public service in a a biography titled “Edgardo J. Angara: In the Grand Manner.”
“But it has also been a grand opportunity and privilege to serve the Filipino people as lawyer, lawmaker, and educator,” Angara said in a statement on Tuesday.
Written by UP Professor and prize-winning author Dr. Jose “Butch” Dalisay Jr., the biography recounts of Angara’s varied facets — lawyer, educator, legislator, cultural champion, statesman and “a senator’s senator” as described by former Senate President Jovito Salonga.
Angara is father of incumbent Senator Juan Edgardo Angara.
The biography, published by the University of the Philippines Press, traces Angara’s ascent to public leadership from his boyhood in Baler, Aurora, to his law studies at the University of the Philippines and the University of Michigan, prior to opening what would become one of the country’s leading law firms, Accra Law.
It then follows his career in public service as Constitutional Convention delegate, UP President, Senator and Senate President, Agriculture Secretary and Executive Secretary.
Once considered by the late National Artist Nick Joaquin as “the country’s best choice for President,” Angara served the people and nation in a multitude of other capacities.
As senator, Angara authored many landmark bills that made a key difference in the lives of millions of Filipinos—the Senior Citizens Act, PhilHealth, the Generics Act, Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization, the Free High School Act, the creation of CHED and Tesda and of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and a host of financial and educational reforms.
Dalisay teaches English at UP and has written the biographies of Washington SyCip and the Lava brothers, among others. Most recently, he was a Pacific Leadership Fellow at the University of California, San Diego.
The book will be launched on April 29 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City. TVJ
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