.

Chito Gascon was the chairman of the University of the Philippines Student Council during the 1986 People Power. He and other student activists were among the first to respond to the call of Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin and Butz Aquino to go to EDSA.

Gascon was also an active participant in EDSA Dos. As then executive director of the National Institute for Policy Studies, he helped organize demonstrations against former President Joseph Estrada.

A practicing lawyer, democracy activist and social reform advocate, Gascon was the first Filipino recipient of both the Democracy & Development Fellowships at Stanford University’s Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law in 2005 and the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowships at the DC-based National Endowment for Democracy in 2006.

Gascon is the Director General of the Liberal party, one of the oldest democratic political parties in the Philippines. He was previously president and executive director of LIBERTAS (Lawyers League for Liberty). He once lectured at the Political Science Departments of the Ateneo de Manila and De La Salle Universities.

[download id=”7″ format=”1″]