Christian S. Monsod is a Filipino lawyer who served as chair of the

Commission on Elections An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

(COMELEC). He was one of the framers of the

1987 Constitution of the Philippines 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 Philippin ...

. He is the founder and honorary chair of the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) and pioneer of the

National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections The National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections or NAMFREL is an election watchdog in the Philippines. It was the first and one of the most famous election watch campaigns. It is known to have introduced non-partisan national election monitor ...

(NAMFREL).

Early life and education

Monsod graduated from the

University of the Philippines College of Law The University of the Philippines College of Law (often referred to as UP Law) is the law school of the University of the Philippines Diliman. Formally established in 1911 in UP Manila, it is the third oldest continually-operating law school ...

. He was a member of the

Upsilon Sigma Phi The Upsilon Sigma Phi () is the oldest Greek-letter organization and fraternity in Asia. Founded in 1918, it is also the oldest student organization in continuous existence in the University of the Philippines. It has two chapters — a single ch ...

. He passed the bar examinations in 1960.

Career

Monsod worked for his father upon passing the bar. He worked for the World Bank Group from 1963 to 1970, and worked there as an operations officer for about two years in Costa Rica and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

, negotiating loans and coordinating legal, economic, and project work of the bank. Upon returning to the Philippines in 1970, he worked with the Meralco Group and served as chief executive officer of an investment bank and subsequently of a business conglomerate. In 1975, he was awarded the Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) Award for Finance. He served as secretary-general of NAMFREL during the

1986 Philippine presidential election The 1986 Philippine presidential and vice presidential elections were held on February 7, 1986. Popularly known as the 1986 snap election, it is among the landmark events that led up to the People Power Revolution, the downfall of the presidenc ...

and eventually as its national chair in 1987. During the Corazon Aquino administration, he was appointed chair of the Commission on Elections. Monsod was formerly co-chair of the Bishops Businessmen's Conference for Human Development and has worked with underprivileged sectors, such as farmer and urban poor groups, in initiating, lobbying for, and engaging in affirmative action for the agrarian reform law and lately the urban land reform bill. Since 1986, he has rendered services to various companies as a legal and economic consultant or chief executive officer. In 1995, he received The Outstanding Filipino (TOFIL) Award for government service and received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the

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 2012, he received the Joe C. Baxter Award for his work on election administration.

Personal life

He is married to

Solita Monsod Solita “Winnie” Garduño Collás-Monsod, popularly known as Mareng Winnie (born July 29, 1940), is a Filipino broadcaster, host, economist, and columnist. She had been the 5th Director-General of the National Economic and Development Aut ...

. They have five children.

References

{{Reflist University of the Philippines alumni University of the Philippines College of Law alumni 20th-century Filipino lawyers 21st-century Filipino lawyers Members of the Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986