Pres Duterte appoints Igorot lawyer as Justice Dept envoy



by Harley F. Palangchao



Atty. Cheryl Daytec-Yangot

President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed Cheryl L. Daytec-Yangot, an Igorot lawyer with vast experience in human rights, environmental, indigenous, labor, criminal and administrative law practice and litigation, as assistant secretary of the Department of Justice.



The President signed Yangot’s appointment last Sept. 28 and was made public only last week through Mayor Mauricio Domogan, who joined other Cordilleran officials in congratulating the newest member of the Cabinet from the highlands.



DOJ Sec. Vitaliano Aguirre II has already been instructed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to make the appointment formal.



Yangot will assume her post second week of this month.



Yangot has completed with merit her Master of Laws at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary with her thesis focused on indigenous claims to right of self-determination as a counter-discourse.



She also finished her Master of Management at the University of the Philippines Baguio with a general average of 1.25 and earned 12 of 24 credits for a Master of Laws degree at the University of Minnesota.



She is a recipient of numerous commendations and leadership awards, including the Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines in 1999 and has been cited as one of the 10 international fellows on human rights by the Open Society Justice Initiative.



She is a founding member of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, currently the biggest organization of human rights lawyers in the country, and also a founding member of the Asian Network of Indigenous Lawyers, the only network of indigenous lawyers in Asia and the Conference Lawyers of Asia and the Pacific.



Yangot, wife of Baguio Councilor Leandro Yangot, traces her roots in Mountain Province.



Prior to her appointment to the DOJ, she was a legal consultant at the office of Commission on Human Rights Commissioner Roberto Eugenio Cadiz and was also serving as a consultant on indigenous issues and international indigenous law and environmental law and issues.



She has also expanded her legal views on a wide range of issues through international trainings and conferences held in Asia, America, and Europe.



For years, she has been involved in networking and lobbying with government, non-government organizations and international groups for policy and law reform, human rights, and humanitarian causes.



A Cum Laude Mass Communication graduate of Saint Louis University, Yangot has published articles, columns, and poems in local and international publications.