Ma. Antonia Raissa Dawn H. Laurel-Subijano (born April 22, 1987) is a Filipino lawyer and politician serving as a city councilor of

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

since 2016.

Bar exam bombing

Then a 23-year-old law student from San Sebastian College, Laurel-Subijano was waiting in

Taft Avenue Taft Avenue (; ) is a major road in southern Metro Manila. It passes through three cities in the metropolis: Manila, Pasay, and Parañaque. The road was named after the former Governor-General of the Philippines and President of the United Stat ...

for her friends who finished the 2010 bar exam in the law school tradition of ''salubong'' when a grenade targeting members of a fraternity exploded next to her. Laurel-Subijano legs were mangled and was left in critical condition. At the time, doctors estimated her chances of survival at only 20% and had to have both legs amputated below the knee.

Political career

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, Laurel-Subijano was elected as city councilor of San Juan, and re-elected again in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, and in

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

. When she was in the city council, Laurel-Subijano was appointed in three committees as chairperson: Committee on Social Services, Women, Children, and Persons with Disabilities’ Welfare; Committee on Laws and Ethics; and Committee on Public Order, Safety, and Illegal Drugs. As a person with disability (PWD) herself, she pushed the rights of those disabled, and by 2017, the council approved an ordinance providing benefits and allotted funds for indigent PWDs.

Personal life

After recovering from her injuries, Laurel-Subijano continued her law studies at

Philippine Christian University The Philippine Christian University (PCU) is a private, Protestant, and coeducational basic and higher education institution located in Ermita, Manila, Philippines. It was founded in 1946 through the initiatives of the laymen of the Evangelical ...

and graduated in 2015. As a blast survivor, Laurel-Subijano has been invited to speaking engagements as a motivational speaker. She is a distant relative of former President

Jose P. Laurel José Paciano Laurel y García (March 9, 1891 – November 6, 1959) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, and judge, who served as the President of the Second Philippine Republic from 1943 to 1945, which was a Japanese ally during World War II. ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laurel-Subijano, Raissa Living people San Sebastian College – Recoletos alumni Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino politicians Partido Federal ng Pilipinas politicians Partido Demokratiko Pilipino politicians Politicians with disabilities Filipino people with disabilities 1987 births