Christian Santos Monsod (born July 16, 1936) 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'') is the supreme law of the Philippines. Its final draft was completed by the Constitutional Commission on October 12, 1986, and rat ...

. 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 (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 is a member of the Upsilon Sigma Phi. 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 Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

and

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

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

Personal life

He is married to economist Solita "Winnie" Monsod. 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