As leader of Nueva Ecija’s top learning institution, President MGP surrounded himself with distinguished advisers to aid him in implementing university policies. One of them is his external legal counsel, human rights lawyer and former party-list representative and Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino senatorial candidate Atty. JV Bautista.

A native of Guimba, Atty. Jose Virgilio “JV” Bautista graduated with a degree in AB Journalism from the University of the Philippines, where he was managing editor of the Philippine Collegian. Afterwards he immediately enroled at the UP College of Law, finishing a degree in Ll.B. in 1983.

In 1988, he was a Parvin Fellow at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in New Jersey. He has been working earlier as legal assistant and researcher at the Philippine Center for Immigrant Rights based in New York. His advocacy for human rights brought him to the Annual Human Rights Research and Teaching Seminar Center for Study of Human Rights in Columbia in June 1988, as well as to other international conferences which advocacies range from opposition to military bases to the amelioration of the lives of victims of the war in the Pacific. He has also been an NGO delegate to the United Nations, participating in various sessions and commissions such as the UN Commission on Namibia Special Asian Conference on the Namibia Question in Singapore, the UN Commission on Human Rights’s (UNCHR) 42nd Session in Geneva, the UN 3rd Special Session on Disarmament at the UN Headquarters in New York and as observer at UNCHR’s 35th session.

He was guest speaker at the Alliance for Philippine Concerns-USA’s (APC-USA) 3rd Annual National Convention at Hamline University in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In 1995 Atty. Bautista was chosen as the legal consultant of the National Democratic Font (NDF) during the latter and the Philippine government’s peace talks in Brussels, Belgium. A member of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), he also served as chief legal counsel and trustee of the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, Inc. (TFDP). He was also the legal counsel and a member of the Board of Directors of the Task Force Filipino Comfort Women.

Atty. Bautista has involved himself in different socio-civic and cause-oriented groups. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Cabanatuan City, was vice president of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Nueva Ecija Chapter (1992-1996) and of the Philippine Association of Friendship with Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, Inc. (1992-1995), and president of Guimba New Years Association (1997-1998) . Apart from this, he is a trustee of the Lean L. Alejandro Foundation, Inc. since 1990, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Public Interest Law Center, Inc. (PILC) based in Manila.

From 1990 to 1995, Atty. Bautista worked as the executive assistant and regional liaison officer of then Senator Wigberto E. Tanada. In 1997-1998 he became a member of the Nueva Ecija Provincial Peace and Order Council in Cabanatuan City. He was the spokesman of the 13th House of Delegates of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines from 1997-1999.

From 2001 to 2004, he represented the Sanlakas Party-list in Congress. His tenure in the Lower House saw him becoming the first to expose the cheating in Sultan Kudarat during the 2004 national elections.

He was the legal counsel of the Nueva Ecija Doctors’ Hospital and Wesleyan University - Philippines in 2009 and currently counsel of VP Jejomar Binay. Since 2008 he is a trustee of the Freedom from Debt Coalition.

With this background, this human rights fighter has become one of the most accomplished Novo Ecijanos of his time.###