Teddy
Baguilat

In 1991, he again surrendered to the call of his native Ifugao as he returned to the province to put up a foundation to help students and protect the environment.

Teddy still remembered his talks with his Ifugao classmates. They observed that in Ifugao, most if not all decisions for the community were made by elders. While they respected the wisdom of their seniors, there was a yearning among the youth to participate in processes that would affect their lives.

And so it was that in 1992, Teddy ran and won as Councilor of Kiangan. At the time, Teddy, aged 25, was the youngest Councilor in the Philippines. He was next elected Mayor of Kiangan for two terms from 1995 to 2001.

In 1996 he was awarded the Dangal ng Bayan Award as one of the Civil Service Commission’s Ten Most Outstanding Civil Servants in the Philippines.

He served twice as Governor of Ifugao, first in 2001 then again in 2007. In those years, Teddy worked tirelessly and removed Ifugao from the list of poorest provinces in the country. Among his many programs, he consistently promoted education and secured scholarships for deserving Ifugao youth, instituted employment assistance for fresh graduates and skilled workers, accessed support for cooperatives to help them with enterprise development, expedited rural electrification programs and supported renewable energy projects, rehabilitated roads, and reduced maternal and infant deaths with a community-based maternal health program.

Although he lost a re-election bid in 2003, he did not rest on his laurels, choosing instead to serve in various ways, mostly as consultant to non-government organizations with advocacies on the environment, child rights, disaster resiliency, and many others. He also found time to lead the Save the Ifugao Rice Terraces Movement, an organization that aimed to preserve the rice terraces as a UNESCO World Heritage site through sustainable eco-tourism projects and education of Ifugao youth.

In 2010, Teddy won a seat in Congress as Representative of the lone district of Ifugao. This not only increased the weight of his duty to serve but also elevated his advocacies for Ifugao and other causes to a national platform.

In his three terms in Congress, he filed over 150 bills (over 40 of which passed into law) and around 50 resolutions. He actively chaired the House Committees on Agrarian Reform and on Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICC). As chairman of the ICC Committee, he not only presided over deliberations on bills affecting indigenous peoples, but he was also asked to mediate over tribal disputes. The latter was due to the respect that Teddy earned from the indigenous communities.

He consistently championed the causes of indigenous peoples, the environment, and human rights. Not only did he speak against extrajudicial killings and the death penalty, he also proposed laws in support of responsible mining, forest management, health rights, education, equality, and even free wi-fi access. He also advanced laws promoting Philippine culture such as the OPM Development bill.

After his third term in Congress, he ran for the position of Ifugao governor but lost by the slimmest of margins. Rather than take a break, the call to service proved too compelling for Teddy as he even took his advocacies to the global arena. Until 2021 he was Executive Director of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, and since 2018 he has been President of the Global Consortium for Indigenous Peoples’ and Community Conserved Areas and Territories.

Back in the Philippines, after learning about the plight of Cordilleran farmers and craftspeople who were unable to bring their products to market due to the COVID pandemic, Teddy organized Cordillera Landing on You (CLOY), a service which transports produce and products from the Cordilleras to consumers in urban areas. Soon, indigenous communities and farmers from other areas reached out to Teddy for help to get their products to consumers. Teddy, in his guise as “Captain Ri”, was only too eager to assist by looking for buyers in the cities.

When community pantries started spreading, Teddy saw an opportunity to help both ends of the supply chain. He employed CLOY to source produce from struggling farmers and deliver them to people in need. Indeed, most of everything that Teddy does is intended to help others.

As Teddy gets ready for his next challenge of service, he still makes sure that he does not neglect his present endeavors. He reaches out to indigenous communities every chance he gets and keeps abreast of changes in the situation of remote farmers and craftspeople. Meanwhile, the preparations are becoming increasingly grueling, but the call to serve is overwhelming.