Bam Aquino


Paolo Benigno Aguirre Aquino IV, who is more widely known as Bam Aquino, is a Filipino politician and social entrepreneur. He served as a Senator of the Philippines from 2013 to 2019. During his stint as senator, he has advocated for the passage of bills focusing on entrepreneurship, culture and arts, and education and science and technology.

Biography

Family

Bam Aquino was born on May 7, 1977 in Manila. He is the son of Paul Aquino, a son of Benigno Aquino Sr., and Melanie Aguirre Aquino. His grandfather, Benigno Aquino Sr., served as a congressman from Tarlac's 2nd District, a senator from the 3rd District Speaker of the National Assembly of the Japanese-puppet state of the Philippines from 1943 to 1944. Went on trial for Treason after the world war II for collaborating with the Japanese, and eventually became the 6th Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines. Under President Ferdinand Marcos' regime, his uncle Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., a former senator, was exiled in the United States from 1980 until 1983 when he returned to the Philippines and was assassinated at the Manila International Airport. In 1986, Marcos fled into exile and Ninoy's wife, Corazon Aquino, became the first female President of the Philippines. His uncle Butz and aunt Teresa also served as senators. His cousin, Benigno Aquino III, was elected the 15th President of the Philippines in 2010, which he served until 2016.

Education

Aquino was a consistent honor student in Ateneo de Manila, Quezon City from grade school to college. During his grade school graduation, Aquino delivered the valedictory speech and graduated with first honors. He also graduated as the class valedictorian in High School in 1995. He continued to serve when he joined the Ateneo Catechetical Instructional League, where he spent three years teaching catechism at nearby public schools.
In 1999, Aquino graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Engineering. He took an Executive Education Program on Leadership and Public Policy, at the Kennedy School of Government in the Harvard University in 2008.
Aquino, as one of the founding members, became the Constitutional Chairman of the National Union of Catholic Student Councils, an association of student councils and governments of various Catholic universities and colleges in the Philippines. In that same year, he was the Student Council President at the Ateneo de Manila University.
After his graduation, Aquino joined the special projects group of the ABS-CBN Foundation. He was involved with rehabilitation centers for abused and neglected children, disaster management and relief operations, and volunteer recruitment. In 2001 he was appointed as NYC's commissioner-at-large.

TV and film

Aquino was also one of the hosts of the TV show Breakfast, a youth-oriented morning talk show at Studio 23. In 2006, Aquino hosted the youth-oriented debate show Y Speak in Studio 23.
In 2009, Aquino played the role of his uncle Ninoy Aquino, in the documentary film The Last Journey of Ninoy. The film premiered on August 21, 2009 in commemoration of the 26th anniversary of the assassination of Ninoy. It was directed by Jun Reyes.

Career

Before becoming a senator, Aquino became the President of MicroVentures, Inc., a social enterprise company that manages the Hapinoy Program which provides micro-financing, training and access to new business opportunities for women micro-entrepreneurs.
The project has helped 10,000 sari-sari stores to become successful and lifted thousands of poor families from poverty. The program bagged the UN's Project Inspire Award in 2011, besting over 400 enterprises all over the world.
For his efforts, Aquino was named as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines in the category of Social Enterprise and Community Development. He was also chosen as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World in 2012.
Aquino's work in the Hapinoy Program gave him a first-hand view on how access to livelihood, capital, market, training, and mentoring helped lift poor families out of poverty. He was also a Board Member of Rags2Riches, Venture for Fundraising, and the Coca-Cola Foundation.

Political career

2013 senatorial bid

Running under the Team PNoy coalition of his cousin, he won in the 2013 elections and placed 7th with 15,388,992 votes.

16th and 17th Congress

Aquino chaired the Committee on Science and Technology from 2016 to 2019. He was also a member of the following committees:
He was the former chairman of the Committee on Education Culture and Arts from July 2016 until his removal from the position on February 2017 due to his opposition on a Duterte-backed legislation. He was chairman of the Committee on Trade, Commerce, and Entrepreneurship and Committee on Youth from July 2013 to June 2016.

Laws passed

Senator Aquino passed more than 40 laws during his first five and half years in office.
Aquino ran as one of the Otso Diretso candidates of the Liberal Party. He failed to win in his re-election bid, placing 14th overall with 14,144,923 votes. Aquino was quoted that "There are 14 million people who voted for an Aquino during the time of Duterte. That's something". According to his wife, he might return to his social entrepreneurship initiatives after his term ended on June 30, 2019.
On July 19, 2019, the PNP–Criminal Investigation and Detection Group filed charges against Aquino and other members of the opposition for "sedition, cyber libel, libel, estafa, harboring a criminal, and obstruction of justice". On February 10, 2020, he was cleared of all charges.

Personal life

He is married to Maria Fatima "Timi" Gomez. They have two daughters together, Consuelo Victoria Aquino and Anna Aurora Aquino.

Awards and involvements