Long before he became Kiko Pangilinan, a three-term senator-slash-farmer who happens to be married to the Megastar, he was first Atty. Biko, a moniker given to him by his father after he went home with a bilao (woven tray) of biko (sticky rice cake) from a client in one of the pro-bono cases he handled when he was starting out as a lawyer.
“Bayad sakin nung kliyente ko, pro bono,” he said when asked what he remembers most when he eats the popular Filipino delicacy.
He recounted how he used to do pro bono work when he was a freshly minted lawyer and that one of his first clients gave him a bilao of biko as a gift for winning the case—a wrongful dismissal, he remembers.
“Yan ang bayad sa akin. At noong nalaman ng tatay ko, (sabi niya) Atty. Biko ang itatawag ko sayo,” he shared animatedly during a small break in-between his barnstorming of Batangas province on Thursday, April 3.
With less than 40 days before the May 2025 midterm polls, where he is seeking another term in the Senate, these merienda breaks are all he has from the whirlwind of campaign activities that push him from one province to another.
It was his late father, Donato Pangilinan, who nicknamed him Atty. Biko, even asking then-girlfriend Sharon Cuneta if she was sure about being with him because all the cases he was handling were for free.
“Noong dinala ko si Sharon sa bahay, girlfriend ko na, ipinakilala ko sa tatay ko. Sabi ng Daddy ko kay Sharon, ‘Iha, ikaw ba sigurado ka ba dito sa anak ko?’ Akala ko magkakampi kami. Sabi ni Sharon, ‘Bakit naman po?’ ‘Eh kasi kailangan mo turuan paano maghanapbuhay ito eh, lahat ng kliyente niya abonado kaya dapat yan, abogado nya yan pero abonado’,” he shared.
The former senator always had his eyes on service and leadership, having been a student leader from his elementary days up to his time at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, where he was chairman of the UP Student Council in 1986 and the first Student Regent of the UP Board of Regents to have voting power in 1987. He was also elected Philippine representative to the Committee on Youth Cooperation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
He eventually found himself in a public service program where he provided free legal advice, so it wasn’t to anyone’s surprise that he threw his hat in the political circus—first as a Quezon City councilor then eventually, as a Senator.
Along the esteemed halls of the Senate, Pangilinan did his most honest and selfless work—write, fight for, and pass legislations that serve the poorest of the poor.
It was a chance encounter with the Kalasag farmers that opened his eyes to the heartbreaking situation of agriculture in the country and then, he made a promise that he would be fighting for until this very day—he said he would find a way to help increase and stabilize their incomes and in the process, lower the food prices for everyone’s benefits.
The Sagip Saka Act is a promise fulfilled. Through painstaking research, discussions, engagements, and consultations, Pangilinan hurdled the legislative process and passed the landmark bill.
It is this same law that he carries close to his heart as he makes a Senate comeback bid in hopes of expanding and fully implementing the Sagip Saka Act, which allows and empowers the national and local governments to buy produce directly from farmers and fisherfolk without a public bidding and the restrictions of the procurement law.
The former senator has championed farmers’ and fisherfolks’ rights to fair market share and increased incomes for the past 15 years, similar to how he was once Atty. Biko who brought home a bilao of sticky coconut rice in exchange for upholding the rights of the oppressed.
That he is going against well-oiled and well-funded political machineries is not lost on Pangilinan, who urged all sides of the political spectrum to work together to end hunger.
After all, he said, hunger knows no political color.
“Ang pagkain, hindi dapat maging pribilehiyo, kundi isang karapatan. Prayoridad nating pababain ang presyo ng mga pagkain at handa tayong makipagtulungan kahit kanino. Dahil walang kulay ang gutom. At walang kulay ang solusyon.”