By JOSEPH HOLANDES UBALDE
Interaksyon.com
THE name “Bolet Banal” came out on Day 19 of the Corona impeachment trial on Thursday after PSBank Katipunan bank manager Annabelle Tiongson identified him as the person who went to her branch on Jan. 31 and sought her help on a dollar account of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Bolet Banal is none other than Jorge Banal, who was elected in representative of the third district of Quezon City in 2010. He was a two-termer Quezon City councilor from 2004 and was the named the city’s top councilor in 2007 and was one of the 10 Most Outstanding Councilors in the Philippines that year.
In the House of Representatives, Banal is the deputy majority leader and vice chairman of the Committee on Basic Education and Culture. He writes a weekly column for the tabloid Abante Tonite called “Bite da Bolet.” So far, he has authored 10 bills and co-authored 42. Some of his bills deal with literacy and education.
He has been a member of President Benigno Aquino III’s Liberal Party since 2002 and recently supported the impeachment of Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo. He is the member of the prosecution’s secretariat.
In 2009, he was the first Kaya Natin! Champion of Good Governance and Ethical Leadership from Metro Manila.
Before joining politics, Banal, who earned a business degree from the University of Santo Tomas, worked for a bank in the United States. According to his official website, he completed his master’s degree in public administration in the University of the Philippines.
He is described as an advocate of literacy and founded several reading campaigns that include ilove2read, Araw ng PagBasa, Feed the Mind, Summer English Reinforcement Classes, Camp Pag-Ibig and School bags para sa lahat.
He is also a children’s book author, having penned The Magic Arrow, KikoMan and Ang Bintana ni Lolo Othello.
He is also a songwriter. His song, “Himig ng Kalikasan” won the Best Folk-Pop Recording award in the 1998 Awit Awards.
