Presentation

1. Lito Atienza
18th Congress of the Philippines

2. Jose "Lito" Livioko Atienza Jr. (Tagalog pronunciation: [ɐˈtijɛnsa]; born
August 10, 1941) is a Filipino politician. He served as a Party-
list Representative for Buhay from 2013 to 2022, and was a House
Deputy Speaker from 2020 to 2022. He served as the Secretary of
Environment and Natural Resources from 2007 to 2009 in the
Administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and was
24th Mayor of Manila for three consecutive terms from 1998 to 2007.
He unsuccessfully ran for vice president of the Philippines in
the 2022 elections as the running mate of Senator Manny Pacquiao.
He has been hosting the drama anthology television
series Maynila on GMA Network since 1998.

3. Early life and career
• Atienza was born on August 10, 1941 in the San Andres
Bukid district of Manila, four months before the outbreak of World
War II. Atienza's father, Jose J. Atienza Sr., was a distinguished
public servant to three Philippine presidents. An
uncle, Hermenegildo Atienza, was a World War II guerrilla leader
and after the war was appointed Military Mayor of Manila by Gen.
Douglas MacArthur himself and one of the founders of the Liberal
Party in 1946. Another uncle, Rigoberto Atienza, a World War II
veteran, a victim of the Bataan Death March and former Philippine
Army commanding general, became Chief of Staff of the Philippine
Armed Forces in the 1960s during the term of President Diosdado
Macapagal. A third uncle, Arturo, became a renowned lawyer. The
four brothers were all members of the Hunters resistance against
the Japanese occupation during World War II.

4. • He took up his primary and secondary education
from Ateneo de Manila University's Basic Education
Unit and completed a Bachelor's
Degree in Architecture from the University of Santo
Tomas. His interest and degree in architecture
proved useful in rehabilitating and renewing the City
of Manila, which had fallen to decay over years of
unmanaged growth in population and the lack of an
urban planning & community development.

5. Personal life
• He is married to Evelina Ilagan with six children, including TV
host Kim Atienza, athlete-turned newscaster Ali Atienza,
and Manila 3rd district councilor Maile Atienza.

6. Political career
•Atienza started his political career in 1968 when
he organized the Democratic Youth Movement.
He was one of those who survived the Plaza
Miranda bombing in 1971. After the 1971
elections, Atienza was hired by then Manila
Mayor Ramon Bagatsing as chief information
officer at the City Hall. He worked under Mayor
Bagatsing for almost ten years.

7. • During Martial Law, Atienza was arrested twice for
exposing human rights abuses under the dictatorship
regime of President Ferdinand Marcos. He remained
with the opposition even if he was on constant threat
of incarceration for opposing Marcos. Atienza was first
elected as Member of Parliament in the then At-large
Congressional District of Manila under the Batasang
Pambansa in 1984 and served until Marcos was
peacefully ousted during the People Power
Revolution of 1986.

8. •Under the administration of President Corazon
Aquino, Atienza was appointed general
manager of the National Housing Authority
(Philippines) in 1988 and he promoted low-cost
housing for teachers and police officers.

9. • Together with former Manila police general Alfredo
Lim running for mayor, Atienza ran for vice-mayor of Manila.
The two defeated the incumbent slate of then-
Mayor Gemiliano Lopez Jr. The tandem won a second term in
1995. When Lim ran for President of the Philippines in 1998,
Atienza was elected mayor and took his oath of office on June
24, 1998. Atienza was again re-elected in 2001 and finally in
2004. During his term as mayor, numerous heritage buildings
in Manila were demolished, notably the Jai Alai Building,
which used to be the best Art Deco building in all
of Asia before its demolition.

10. • The Supreme Court ruled on April 17, 2007, that Franklin
Drilon was the real president of the Liberal Party and not Atienza
and has approved the Daza-Drilon Amendments to the LP's
Charter. It also ruled that all certificates of nomination signed by
Atienza are worthless unless they moved to another political party
like Batangas Governor Armando Sanchez and Manny Pacquiao,
who moved to KAMPI, and Mike Defensor, who moved to Lakas-
CMD, in February 2007. Voting 9–5, the court said the amended
Salonga Constitution extended Drilon's term to November 2007.
On July 16, 2007, the Supreme Court dismissed with finality a
motion for consideration filed by Atienza (en banc resolution dated
July 5, 2007). COMELEC earlier ruled that Drilon's term as LP
president has already expired and called for the holding of
elections to end the leadership vacuum in the country's oldest
political party. The ruling came after the poll body invalidated the
so-called "rump elections" of LP leaders in March 2006

11. • On November 26, 2007, at Club Filipino, Greenhills, San
Juan, LP National Executive Council officials resolved to
appoint Senator Mar Roxas as president of the Liberal Party
(Philippines). Corazon Aquino and Jovito Salonga, inter alia,
signed the resolution. Roxas is to unite the two LP factions,
and set the stage for his presidential campaign in the 2010
election.[4] Atienza, however, questioned Roxas' appointment,
attacking the composition of Liberal Party's National Executive
Council (NECO) and alleged that the Supreme Court of the
Philippines' June 5 resolution ordered the LP leadership's
status quo maintenance.

12. •In February 2007, Atienza formally and officially
announced that his second son, the Presidential
Adviser on Youth Affairs and Manila's Chair of
the Inner-City Development Committee, Arnold
Atienza, would run for mayor of the city on May
14, 2007. Arnold Atienza lost the mayoralty race
to Sen. Alfredo Lim, who was also a former
mayor

13. Environment Secretary
• Atienza, a staunch supporter of President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo, was named Environment Secretary on July 18, 2007,
replacing Angelo Reyes, who was moved to the Department of
Energy, after incumbent Raphael Lotilla resigned. Atienza's
appointment came as a shock to environmental groups, who had
dubbed him as the "butcher of Arroceros." As Manila mayor,
Atienza in 2003 enraged environmentalists when he ordered the
closure of the Arroceros Forest Park to give way to the building of
an education office and a teacher's dormitory, sparking a lawsuit.
The Kalikasan People's Network said that Atienza had no moral
authority to be at the helm of the DENR because he had "neither
had sterling qualifications nor a clean track record of protecting the
environment as former Manila Mayor."