Akbayan Rep.

Walden Bello
Walden Bello became a household name for leading the first-ever civilian mission to Pag-Asa Island, the Philippine seat of power in the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) and the center of the Philippines' claim over the disputed Spratlys Archipelago. Accompanied by other members of Congress, local government officials of Kalayaan and Palawan, and a team of local and foreign media, Walden raised the Filipino people's demand for the People's Republic of China to keep off Philippine territory. It was also in the upsurge of Chinese incursions into Philippine territory that Walden initiated the renaming of the South China Sea to the West Philippine Sea. This captured the people's patriotic imagination and led to the united stand of Filipinos all over the world in peaceful protest against China's aggressive claim over what is rightfully Philippine territory. Walden and the campaign for Philippine sovereignty and independence is evidence of Akbayan's brand of politics: winning the Filipino people's fight against abusive powers through peaceful, democratic means. As champion of the marginalized, Walden joined ranks with persons with disabilities (PWDs) to demand that drug retail giant Mercury Drug Corporation provide the legally-mandated 20 per cent discount on all medicine purchases for PWDs. From the streets to the halls of Congress, Walden and the PWD sector's victory in this fight culminated in the signing of a memorandum of agreement that explicitly requires the drug retail magnate to honor the discount and provide Congress regular updates on the progress of the agreement's implementationWalden's tireless efforts to ensure the welfare of ordinary Filipinos was again established when he, as chairman of the Lower House Committee on Overseas Workers' Affairs, fought to ensure the rights and welfare of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) by investigating the living conditions of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia and bringing Filipina workers home to the Philippines from war-torn Syria. Walden's determination to fight for the rights of ordinary, and often powerless, Filipinos stems from a long history of activism and struggle against leaders and enterprises that use power at the expense of people's welfare. He made his debut as a political activist during the Marcos dictatorship, when he dedicated two decades to building an international movement to restore democracy in the Philippines by coordinating the Anti-Martial Law Coalition and establishing the Philippine Human Rights Lobby in Washington, DC. Famous for his political actions, Walden led the non-violent takeover of the Philippine consulate office in San Francisco in 1978. He also broke into the World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC to get hold of 3,000 pages of confidential documents that provided the material for his book that became an underground bestseller in the Philippines and which was used as an education and campaign tool in expanding the citizen's movement that eventually deposed Marcos in 1986. As a result, he was arrested repeatedly and was even incarcerated by the US government.

However, this did not undermine Walden's important academic work. His enthusiasm for street parliamentarism can only be matched by his deep devotion in producing countless exemplary papers and books tackling important issues of the day such as globalization, trade, security and development. He has, so far authored and/or co-authored 14 books on global, Asian, and Philippine issues which won him recognition and respect from different parts of the world. The Belgian newspaper Le Soir called Walden "the most respected anti-globalisation thinker in Asia." On the other hand, renowned Canadian author Naomi Klein has called him the "world's leading no-nonsense revolutionary", while Chalmers Johnson has hailed him as the "world's best guide to American exploitation of the globe's poor and defenseless." In 2003, Walden was honoured with the Right Livelihood Award, better known as the Alternative Nobel Prize, for "... outstanding efforts in educating civil society about the effects of corporate globalisation, and how alternatives to it can be implemented." A superb writer, a renowned political analyst, academic and social activist, admirers describe Walden as the venerable rockstar of the global progressive movement. Putting flesh to the bone, he effectively combines the roles of both intellectual and activist, deconstructing the myths and lies of a failed global corporatist development paradigm and contributing significantly in constructing a viable and democratic alternative. Walden continues to bring this zeal for the empowerment of each and every Filipino through public office.At present, Walden advances the people's interests in the 15th Congress as representative of Akbayan Party. Alongside the previously mentioned victories of the Filipino people, he put forth legislative measures that respond to a broad range of development issues protecting security of tenure of workers, providing social protection to small farmers and their families, providing socialized housing to informal settlers, cutting back on trade liberalization, improving the human rights situation in the country, strengthening mechanisms for accountability of public officials and transparency of official transactions, prioritizing the people in the national budget process over foreign debt service, clean and renewable energy development and environmental protection and policy responses to Climate Change. He is also in the frontline of the fight for the passage of the Reproductive Health bill, determined to win for every Filipino the right to reproductive health and family planning. As the Chairman of the Overseas Workers Affairs Committee, Walden forwards legislative measures for the welfare of OFWs including anti-human trafficking legislation, securing the welfare of Filipino migrant workers in the Middle East and across the globe, cracking down on illegal recruitment, negotiating greater allocation for OFW concerns in the national budget, and strengthening institutional mechanisms to ensure welfare of OFWs, including the creation of the OWWA Charter, Magna Carta for Seafarers and improving Overseas Voting. With consecutive successes in the promotion of people's rights and national independence, Walden proves that with Akbayan, panalo ang mamamayan.