Kiko as a student leader
Senator Kiko started his student-leader days at the La Salle Green Hills where he completed his elementary education in 1977. He completed his secondary education still in La Salle Green Hills in 1981.He finished his college education and graduated from the University of the Philippines, Diliman with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Major in Comparative Literature.
It was during his college years at the University of the Philippines when his sense of nationalism deepened. A summer job working for his father in the hinterlands of Antique brought him face to face with the poverty and the impotence of government presence and basic services in the rural areas.
He served as chairman of the University of the Philippines Student Council in 1986 under the student political party SAMASA and was the first Student Regent of the UP Board of Regents to have voting power in 1987. He was elected Philippine representative to the Committee on Youth Cooperation of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
In 1997, he finished his post-graduate studies at the Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government with a degree of Master of Science in Public Administration with an area of concentration in Strategic Management.
From “THE UP IN OUR MINDS”, Manila Bulletin, June 20, 2008
Senator Francis Pangilinan (AB English, Major in Comparative Literature,1986/Bachelor of Laws,1993)
“My top UP moment would be my stint as UP Student Council chairman during a turbulent period of political assassinations, massacres and coup d’etats. I was USC chair from 1986 to 1987.In this short period the assassination of Ka Lando Olalia and Lean Alejandro, the God Save the Queen coup attempt, and the Mendiola Massacre all happened. It was one politically-charged year to be a student leader and activist.”