Ronald Llamas

Rolando "Ronald" M. Llamas^[1] is a Filipino political analyst, activist, and former political affairs adviser to President Benigno Aquino III.^[2] He also served as the president of the Akbayan Citizens' Action Party, where he played an influential role in policy and political advisement.^[3]

Llamas studied at the University of Santo Tomas, where he took a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from 1978 to 1982.^[4] During his university years, he was actively involved in student publications, serving as a writer for Hudyat and The Flame, and as features editor of The Varsitarian.^[5]

After witnessing a violent demolition of a squatters' area in Tondo, Manila during his college years, he realized that he must start making a difference in the lives of the impoverished and marginalized sectors of Philippine society. In a special issue of The Flame, he wrote the article Confessions of a Butcher, a satire about President Ferdinand Marcos and his defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile. Soon, the UST administration warned the Varsitarian against publishing articles deemed critical of the Marcos regime, compelling Llamas to give up his editorship. ^[6]

In 1981, he became the first president of the Faculty of Arts and Letters (AB) Student Council when it was revived upon the lifting of Martial Law. Llamas wrote the first student constitution in UST, primarily to counteract the meddling of university administration in student affairs. It influenced other colleges in the University Belt to follow suit. Later, the UST Central Student Council was established. As its president, Llamas managed to personally hand over to Pope John Paul II a letter expressing the Filipino students' dissent against the Marcos dictatorship when the Supreme Pontiff first visited the country in 1981, which was published in the L'Osservatore Romano months later. ^[7]

Llamas was also instrumental in organizing the Youth for the Advancement of Faith and Justice (YAFJ), an intercollegiate student youth movement that gained prominence and influence in student politics in the University Belt.

Leaving UST without graduating, Llamas became active in trade unionism, organized labor, and other sectoral groups. He helped in establishing several non-governmental organizations, which focused on different marginalized sectors.

Llamas became active in the campaign for the approval of the party-list law. He is one of the founding member and first president of Akbayan Citizens' Action Party in 1998,^[8][9] and served as one of the party leaders.^[9] In that year's national elections, Akbayan won one seat in the Philippine House of Representatives.

On February 25, 2006, he and other personalities were arrested in Santolan, Quezon City while leading a protest rally commemorating the 20th anniversary of the first People Power Revolution. Those arrested included sociologist Randy David, lawyer Argee Guevarra, and Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros. The reason for the arrest was the lack of a permit to rally because President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo revoked all permits after she declared a state of national emergency just a few hours earlier. ^[10][11] They were later released with all charges dropped. In May 2006, the Supreme Court declared that these arrests were invalid.^[12]

He was initially appointed by President Benigno Aquino III as a member of the board of directors of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) in 2010.^[13]

In 2011, he was appointed as presidential adviser for political affairs.^[14] The choice of President Benigno Aquino III to appoint him surprised some media outlets, as they expected Aquino to appoint from his party, Liberal. Aquino later explained his choice that Akbayan, where Llamas is a member, is a coalition partner of Liberal.^[9]

In October 2011, Llamas faced controversy when revealed that he owned an AK-47 rifle, which some considered a firearms violation.^[15] He also stated that he will resign if President Aquino questioned him about the issue.^[16] In February 2012, after buying pirated DVDs on Circle C Mall in Quezon City, he only got a reprimand from the president.^[17]