Sonny Angara

Senate

Sonny Angara on the campaign trail during the 2013 senatorial elections.

In the 17th Congress, Senator Angara currently chairs the following committees:^[3]

• Local Government
• Ways and Means

As chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, Angara has already worked for the enactment of:^[4][5]

• Republic Act 10653 that raises the take-home pay of Filipino workers by increasing the tax exemption cap for 13th month pay and other benefits from P 30,000 to P82,000.^[6]
• Republic Act 10708 or the Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act (TIMTA) that aims to promote transparency and accountability in the grant and administration of tax incentives to registered business entities so as to encourage investors to bring more businesses to the country, generate more employment opportunities, and boost Philippine economic growth.^[7]
• Republic Act 10754 or the VAT Exemption for Persons with Disability. This law exempts persons with disabilities (PWDs) from the 12-percent value added tax (VAT) on land transportation, domestic air and sea travels; on fees and charges for medical and dental services; on cost of medicines; on funeral and burial services; on fees and charges in hotels and restaurants, among others.^[8]

Angara is pushing for the passage of the income tax reform bill that seeks to update and adjust the levels of taxable income to inflation to ease taxpayers’ burden and to make the tax system more equitable and progressive. Furthermore, Angara has urged the government to make it easy for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to form a business and pay taxes by simplifying the process, reducing the steps and requirements, easing the formalities, and eliminating red tape.These key reforms are included in President Duterte's Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Bill otherwise known as the "TRAIN Bill"^[9] currently pending bicam approval.

In the 16th Congress, Angara formerly chaired Committee on Games, Amusement and Sports where he is actively pushing for greater support for Filipino athletes and competitiveness of national sports teams competing in international competitions. Through this committee, he has authored and sponsored the following laws:

• RA 10699 or the National Athletes and Coaches Benefits and Incentives Act that increased the amount of financial incentives and benefits given to national athletes, coaches and recognition of athletes with disabilities as national athletes.^[10]
• RA 10636 granting Filipino citizenship to Andray Blatche, the 6-foot-11 basketball player from the NBA, for eligibility to join the Gilas Pilipinas national basketball team.^[11]
• Republic Acts 10674, 10680, 10681, 10682 and 10683 which established sports academies and training centers respectively in Davao de Norte, Misamis Occidental, Talisay Cebu, Alfonso Cavite and Siargao Island to hone the skills and raw talent of young athletes from the provinces and jumpstart grassroots sports development.^[12]

Angara was also formerly the acting chairman of the Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources. He is the sponsor of RA 10691 or the amended Public Employment Service Office (PESO) Act,^[13] which aims to improve and strengthen PESOs’ employment facilitation services to help more Filipinos land a job especially in rural areas and poorer municipalities, and RA 10706 or the Seafarers Protection Act, which protects Filipino seafarers from ambulance chasers, particularly lawyers, who charge excessive legal fees arising from accident, illness, or death of seafarers in the course of their service.

Congress

He was first elected to public office in 2004 as the representative to Congress for the lone district of Aurora, where he succeeded his aunt, Bellaflor J. Angara-Castillo, a three-term representative and erstwhile governor of Aurora. Elected at age 31, he was one of the youngest members of the 13th Congress. He was a member of the House minority and served as House deputy minority leader, thereby becoming an ex officio member of all standing and special committees of the 13th Congress. He authored a number of laws of national significance and was able to focus on work in his constituency, where he used the funds allotted to his office to build over 100 classrooms and provided funds for indigent constituents in 12 government hospitals and hundreds of scholarships to deserving students at various state universities and colleges (SUCs). He also worked together with socio-civic groups on various projects and funded the creation of the Gawad Kalinga villages for the homeless in three of Aurora's municipalities and the provision of computers and Internet access to Aurora's public high schools, together with the GILAS Foundation, and access to vocational, skills, and livelihood training through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and other groups.

He was elected to a second term as congressman in 2007, when he ran unopposed under the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), the same political party as in 2004. He served as deputy majority leader and vice chairman of the committee on rules, also as an ex officio member of all standing and special committees in the House during the 14th Congress (2007–2010).

He was one of the remaining congressmen who offered aid to some of the wounded persons and personally took some of the survivors to the nearby Far Eastern Hospital along Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City for treatment when a bomb was planted by still-unknown suspects at the premises of the House of Representatives in 2008 which resulted in the death of Congressman Wahab Akbar and the death and serious wounding of other congressmen and congressional staffers.

He topped the list of "prolific and hardworking members of the House of Representatives" for filing the most number of bills of national importance that were enacted into law in the 14th Congress. A report by the House Indexing and Monitoring Group of the Bills and Index Department showed that in the 14th Congress of 2007-2010, he, then deputy majority floor leader, filed 10 national bills that eventually became laws of the land.^[14]

He was elected to a third term as congressman for Aurora In 2010.

He was one of the signatories of the impeachment complaint against then-Chief Justice Renato Corona, which was signed by the 188 members of the Philippine House of Representatives in December 2011,^[15] was eventually adopted as the Articles of Impeachment, and was passed for consideration of the Senate impeachment court. He acted as deputy spokesperson of the House prosecution panel, together with Marikina Representative Romero Federico "Miro" S. Quimbo and Quezon Representative Lorenzo "Erin" R. Tañada III, in the impeachment trial of the Chief Magistrate.^[16]

As a three-term congressman, he authored several measures signed into law by the President of the Philippines, such as:

• Magna Carta of Women (Republic Act 9710)^[17]
• Pre-Need Code of the Philippines (Republic Act No. 9829)^[18]
• Aurora Special Economic Zone Act of 2007 (Republict Act No. 9490)^[19]
• Tax Exemption for Minimum Wage Earners Law (Republic Act No. 9504)^[20]
• Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Act of 2009 (Republic Act No. 9586)^[21]
• Civil Aviation Authority Act of 2008 (Republic Act No. 9497)^[22]
• Personal Equity and Retirement Account (PERA) Act of 2008 (Republic Act No. 9505)^[23]
• Tourism Act of 2009 (Republic Act No. 9593)^[24]
• University of the Philippines Charter of 2008 (Republic Act No. 9500)^[25]
• An Act Providing for the Legitimation of Children Born to Parents Below Marrying Age, Amending for the Purpose the Family Code of the Philippines, as Amended (Republic Act No. 9858)^[26]
• National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009 (Republic Act No. 10066)^[27]
• Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010 (Republic Act No. 9994)^[28]
• Financial Rehabilitation and Insolvency Act (FRIA) of 2010 (Republic Act No. 10142)^[29]
• Kindergarten Education Act (Republic Act No. 10157)^[30]
• Credit Information System Act (Republic Act No. 9510)^[31]
• Health Workers' Day Act (Republic Act 10069)^[32]
• Domestic Workers Act (Republic Act No. 10361)^[33]

In his three terms as congressman, he funded through his priority development assistance fund the construction of over 300 classrooms, the education of over 3,000 scholars, and the treatment of over 12,000 patients in 11 government hospitals.^[34]

Family

He married Tootsy Echauz in 2003; they have three children.^[36]