Juan Andres "Andy" Donato Bautista is the former chairman of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) of the Philippines and former

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

of the Institute of Law of the Far Eastern University, a private, non-sectarian university in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. Bautista is a member of the Consultative Commission on Charter Change, an independent body formed in 2005 by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Maria Gloria Macaraeg Macapagal Arroyo (, born April 5, 1947), often referred to by her initials GMA, is a Filipino academic and politician serving as one of the House Deputy Speakers since 2022, and previously from 2016 to 2017. She previously ...

to propose revisions to the 1987

Philippine Constitution The Constitution of the Philippines ( Filipino: ''Saligang Batas ng Pilipinas'' or ''Konstitusyon ng Pilipinas'', Spanish: ''Constitución de la República de Filipinas'') is the constitution or the supreme law of the Republic of the Philippine ...

. He is a frequent resource speaker on topics concerning Philippine constitutional law and the state of legal education and profession in the country. He was once nominated to be the next

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines The chief justice of the Philippines ( fil, Punong Mahistrado ng Pilipinas) presides over the Supreme Court of the Philippines and is the highest judicial officer of the government of the Philippines. As of April 5, 2021, the position is cur ...

Education

Bautista earned his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

in Legal management degree from

Ateneo de Manila University , mottoeng = Light in the Lord , type = Private, research, non-profit, coeducational basic and higher education institution , established = December 10, 1859 , religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic ( Jesuits) , academic ...

in 1986, a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...

(''Class Valedictorian'') from

Ateneo Law School , mottoeng = Light in the Lord , type = Private, research, non-profit, coeducational basic and higher education institution , established = December 10, 1859 , religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic (Jesuits) , academic_affi ...

in 1990, and a

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

from Harvard Law School in 1993.

Career

From 2002 to 2005, Bautista became president of the Philippine Association of Law Schools. He was also a bar reviewer in constitutional law at the National Bar Review Consortium (2003–2008), a lecturer in constitutional law and project finance at the

and the

Far Eastern University institute of Law The Far Eastern University – Institute of Law, also known as FEU Law or IL, is the Legal Education Board-accredited law school of the Far Eastern University. It is one of the four earliest institutes that comprised the university in 1934. FEU ...

, a

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to ...

of the Philippine Judicial Academy, a member of the Supreme Court Committee on Legal Education and Bar Matters, a member of the governing board of the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Office, vice president for academic affairs of the Philippine Constitution Association, as well as director and corporate secretary of the British Chamber of Commerce. Bautista was also the former

of the FEU Institute of Law and the Master of Business Administration-Juris Doctor dual degree program of the De La Salle Graduate School of Business and Far Eastern University. He is concurrently the chairman of the board of directors of the Makati Shangri-la Plaza Hotel. While still a

law student Legal education is the education of individuals in the principles, practices, and theory of law. It may be undertaken for several reasons, including to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for admission to legal practice in a particular ...

, Bautista served as judicial clerk to then Chief Justice

Marcelo Fernan Marcelo "Celing" Briones Fernan (October 24, 1927 – July 11, 1999) was a Filipino lawyer and political figure. He is the only Filipino to have served as both Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and as Senate President. He is also the thi ...

from 1989 to 1992. In 2014, he was replaced by Atty.

Mel Sta. Maria Melencio Santos Sta. Maria Jr. (; born February 23, 1957) is a Filipino lawyer, law professor, and television & radio presenter. He has been the dean of Far Eastern University's law school since 2013. He has also been teaching at his alma mate ...

as FEU Law dean.

Commission on Elections and the 2016 election cheating allegations

In August 2010, Bautista was appointed by President

Benigno Aquino III Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (; February 8, 1960 – June 24, 2021), also known as Noynoy Aquino and colloquially as PNoy, was a Filipino politician who served as the 15th president of the Philippines from 2010 to 2016. The son of ...

as chairman of the

Presidential Commission on Good Government The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) is a quasi-judicial government agency of the Philippines whose primary mandate is to recover the ill-gotten wealth accumulated by Ferdinand Marcos, his immediate family, relatives, subordin ...

. On April 28, 2015, President

signed Bautista's appointment as the new COMELEC chairman. This appointment played an important role in the 2016

General Elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

in the Philippines, where many issues and accusations circulated in the media and online social networks about the apparent manipulation of the election results by the dominant political party at the time,

Liberal Party (Philippines) The Liberal Party (Filipino and Spanish: ''Partido Liberal''), abbreviated as the LP, is a liberal political party in the Philippines. Founded on January 19, 1946, by Senate President Manuel Roxas, Senate President Pro-Tempore Elpidio Quirino, ...

. The camp of losing vice-presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos claimed and presented reports of irregularities in the hash code of the data provided by the COMELEC's transparency server. COMELEC explains that this happened as the result of the correction of the character 'Ñ' which did not render properly in the output. Another accusation claimed by the Marcos camp was the reports of another discrepancy in the data provided by the same transparency server, where the number of votes have been slightly decreased further. Bautista explained that this occurred as the result of their intentional act of removing the "test votes" which were apparently included in the official vote counts by accident, and reported by the transparency server. Still Marcos supporters believed the massive cheating was done through manipulation of the voting system and that Bautista had a direct hand in it. In its decision dated December 28, 2016, the National Privacy Commission found the COMELEC guilty of violation of the Data Privacy Act of 2012 for a data breach that led to the leakage of personal data of 1.3 million overseas Filipino voters as well as fingerprints of 15.8 million people and recommended the filing of criminal charges against Bautista under Section 26 of the Act. On March 25, 2021, the Court of Appeals dismissed Bautista's petition for review. On October 11, 2017, Bautista announced his intention to resign as chairman of the Commission on Elections by the end of the year. Hours after announcing his intent to resign, the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

voted 137–75–2 to

impeach Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In ...

Bautista from the post amid allegations of unexplained wealth. However, as of 2021, no articles of impeachment have reached the Senate. On October 23, President Rodrigo Duterte formally accepted Bautista's resignation. It was later discovered that Bautista fled to the United States on November 21, 2017, and refused to return to the Philippines despite a subpoena to attend a Senate probe.

International conferences

Bautista has been a reactor in the ''18th IDP International Education Conference'' in Sydney in 2004, a participant in the bilateral discussions with the University of Nepal Faculty of Law in

Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...

in 2002 (no such university name in Nepal), a reactor in the ''21st Century Form of Legal Education'' in Beijing in 2001, a delegate in the ''Conference on Obstacles to Third World Development'' in 1988, and Captain of the Philippine Team in the ''World University Debating Championships'' also in 1986. He was also included in the

Pandora Papers The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021. The leak exposed the secret offshore accounts of 3 ...

as incorporator of Baumann Enterprises Limited, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands in 2010. Baumann has never been declared in Bautista’s Statement of Liabilities, Assets and Net Worth (SALN) from 2010 to 2015.

References

External links

Far Eastern University Institute of LawLa Salle-FEU MBA-JD Dual Degree Program
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bautista, Andres D. 20th-century Filipino lawyers 21st-century Filipino businesspeople 21st-century Filipino lawyers Ateneo de Manila University alumni Benigno Aquino III administration personnel Chairpersons of the Commission on Elections of the Philippines Duterte administration personnel Filipino educators Filipino people of Spanish descent Impeached Filipino officials Harvard Law School alumni Living people People named in the Pandora Papers Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Merit (Philippines) Year of birth missing (living people)