ALAGAD: A Brief History

Inspired by the Holy Bible, ALAGAD stands for discipleship and servant leadership. The Party was founded on November 14, 1997 by Diogenes Osabel, an acknowledged champion and defender of the Urban Poors rights and welfare. The Party was originally constituted by a group of Urban Poor leaders in the NCR led by Elymer de Guzman. Its initial base included the cities of Baguio, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga City, and the provinces of Pangasinan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Bulacan, and Cavite. With his idealism, activist background and long involvement in Catholic movements, Osabel set the tone in defining ALAGADs Servant Leadership. In his words: Ang mga nagnanais mamuno, dapat maging mabubuting ALAGAD. Osabels commitment and dedication to his work with the urban poor endeared him to many. Even as head of the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor, he still risked his life to stop arbitrary, forcible and illegal eviction and demolition, asserting presidential authority through a borrowed megaphone. Whatever his office lacked in legal mandate, Osabel more than made up with courage and zeal. Osabel, pushed for pro-poor policies, programs, and projects and played a key role in the crafting of important laws, particularly the Urban Development and Housing Act (RA 7279), the repeal of PD 772 and the Urban Poor Development Framework Plan, which sought to establish the framework for collaboration among national government agencies and LGUs in addressing urban poverty. He was also instrumental in Meralcos Depressed Area Electrification Project (DAEP), MWSS Depressed Area Public Faucet Project II, the Community Mortgage Program, the Presidential People Empowerment Fund, the UNICEFs Urban Basic Services Program, the Urban Poor Capability Building Program, and the creation of the Committee Against Squatting Syndicates and Professional Squatters. (He led and successfully implemented the first nationwide registration of socialized housing beneficiaries in 1994 without any budgetary appropriation by mobilizing and raising more than P300M from LGUs, and engaging more than 60,000 people who manned the barangay and municipal/city registration committees.) The ALAGAD registered with the Comelec as an Urban Poor Sectoral Political Party in February 1998, and competed and won in the first Party-List elections. Osabel distinguished himself as an articulate and competent champion of the poor in the 11th Congress. As Chairman of the Committee on Cooperative Development, he resolved the issue of tax-exemption for Cooperatives that hounded the Committee for two years by simply requesting then BIR Commissioner Beethoven Rualo to issue clear guidelines on the same, as already provided by law. He was Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Peoples Participation and an active member of several important Committees, including Human Rights, Labor, and Public Information. Osabel also shattered the creeping discrimination against party-list legislators in the House when he and other party-list colleagues threatened to delay the approval of the General Appropriations Act of 1999 if the issue of equal sharing in the budget is not resolved. The House leadership promptly acceded. The Partys loss in 2001 and sad experiences in 2004 and 2007 did not deter Osabel and the Partys leaders from serving their constituents in their own humble ways. Osabel continued to represent the ALAGAD and served as Chairman of the National Urban Poor Sectoral Council (NUPSC), under the aegis of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) from 2002-2009. In April 2009, the Supreme Court issued a new resolution and formula to get the 20% reserved party-list seats in Congress fully filled up. Osabel and Atty. Marcoleta agreed to a compromise, and the two together served one year in the 14th Congress. Congressman Marcoleta is now finishing his third term in Congress, giving Osabel a free hand in the selection of the next nominees of the Party for the upcoming 2013 elections. Osabel sees in this a great opportunity to consolidate and rebuild the urban poor organization, according to the vision of the founding leaders, in the context of fast-changing realities and the challenges of poverty and development. (For an idea of our ICT program, please visit: www.alagad.com.ph)