Florencio butch abad biography

Florencio "Butch" Barsana Abad (born July 13, 1954) is a Filipino lawyer and politician.
Florencio "Butch" Barsana Abad is a Filipino lawyer and politician.
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Keynote Address by Florencio “Butch” Abad, on the occasion of the CALD 20th Anniversary

November 27, 2013 10:13 amPublished by CALD

Keynote address by Philippine Secretary of Budget and Management, Former President of the Liberal Party of the Philippines, and Former CALD Chair, Hon. Florencio “Butch” Abad, on the occasion of the CALD 20th Anniversary Dinner, held on 09 November 2013 at the Maynila Ballroom, Manila Hotel, Philippines.

[Greetings]… ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to Manila. It’s a pleasure to have this opportunity to speak before you, fellow liberals in Asia, on the occasion of the 20^th year of existence of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats. First of all, let us give CALD a warm round of applause.

Sometime in the early 1990s, a handful of Asian participants in the Liberal International conference in Sintra, Portugal—that included me, as well as (name those who were with you)—decided to go to Lisbon and wind down over bottles of beer. I remembered how out-of-place we were in that conference: we could not relate

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Henedina Abad: The Reluctant Politician and the Politics of Conscience

“The truth of the matter is that Dina was not a politician and up to the time that she left us, she was a reluctant politician. And I think she became a politician because of I think one trait that really led her to where she is right now, and it was her willingness to give off herself,” thus said Florencio “Butch” Abad during one lonely, rainy night, executing a task that is one of the most difficult and painful for a man to do—deliver the eulogy for his wife. Batanes Rep. Henedina “Dina” Razon Abad succumbed to cancer on 8 October 2017.

It was not coincidental that the wake and memorial services were held at the Ateneo de Manila University’s main campus in suburban Manila. Dina, a long-time university professor, was the Founding Dean of the Jesuit institution’s School of Government.

The reluctance in politics was understandable given Dina’s long-standing career in the academe and civil society, and by being a “parliamentarian of the streets” even before becoming a member of parliament.

“I first en

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Currently the Budget and Management Secretary under the Aquino administration, Florencio “Butch” Barsana Abad has worked in various capacities as a reform advocate and public servant for over 30 years.

Unknown to many, "Butch" prefaced his political career by providing legal assistance to landless farmers and human rights victims at the height of the Marcos dictatorship. It was only natural that he would engage in such "barefoot lawyering," as Butch himself had received public assistance in his law studies. Together with Fr. Joaquin Bernas, he founded the Ateneo Legal Assistance Center, where he and his peers worked as paralegals for clients who otherwise could not afford legal services.

He later served as Representative of Batanes in 1987 and was appointed Secretary of Agrarian Reform under the first Aquino administration. He later returned to Congress as House Representative of Batanes in 1995, where he served three consecutive terms. In 2004, he began his term as Secretary of Education, during which he pursued key reforms in basic education that he started as a legislator.