MANILA-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Dec. 7 conferred the Pamana ng Pilipino award on a blind Filipino American lawyer who has been appointed to a key position in the office of United States President George W. Bush.
The awardee is Olegario "Ollie" Cantos VII, who has been appointed Associate Director on Disabilities of the White House Domestic Policy Council in the Executive Office of the US president, the highest designated position given to a disabled individual in the federal government today.
The award is accorded to Filipinos
abroad, who, in exemplifying the talent and industry of the Filipino, have
brought the country honor and recognition through excellence and distinction in
the pursuit of their work or profession.
The awarding ceremony was held in
Malacanang.
Blind since birth, Ollie hails from
Batangas province. He is the first ethnic minority and first Filipino-American
to serve in that office.
His rise to his new post came after just
20 months in public service.
His primary functions include
coordinating national disability policy across federal agencies, assisting in
briefing Bush on issues of importance to the disability community, advising on
potential presidential appointments, representing the administration at
speaking engagements, and maintaining and fostering ongoing dialogues with
leaders from the public, private and non-profit sectors.
Based on an interview with Cantos posted
on the US Department of Justice’s Disability Rights online, he is the son of
Filipino immigrants Orlando Cantos and Linda Dagdagan, both from Batangas, and
grew up in West Covina, California.
He is the grandson of former Batangas
congressman Olegario Cantos Sr., who served from 1965 to 1969. Cantos said he
was the first lawyer in his family and that his decision to go to law school
actually had its roots in experiences he had when he was 10 years old and went
on a first-time trip to the Philippines
with his mother.
“While there, I spent time with my uncle,
my father’s oldest brother. He took me to a country club whose membership fee,
he boasted, was P90,000 at that time. I met provincial political leaders who
were friends of his," Cantos related.
“I was struck by how these leaders
enjoyed such lavish lifestyles while other Filipinos lived in abject poverty,
with little hope of advancement.
That bothered me, and I remember how I
grew to have a deeper Appreciation for the incredible opportunities available
in the United States
to Allow anyone to succeed or fail on his or her own merit," he said in
the interview.
Cantos graduated from Loyola Law School in 1997 and Loyola Marymount
University in 1992 and
was one of only a few graduates to have served in the leadership of the alumni
associations of both schools.
Prior to his present post, Cantos was the
first and only person ever to serve as
general counsel and director of programs for the 120,000-member American
Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the largest ross-disability
national membership organization in the US.
In March 2006, he worked at the US-DOJ
where he served as special counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil
Rights. Before that, he served in the same office as special assistant to the
Assistant Attorney General.
