Kiko reflects on humble beginnings

Before he became Kiko Pangilinan, the three-term senator, farmer and husband of the Megastar, he was simply Atty. Biko — a nickname given to him by his father after he returned home with a bilao (woven tray) of biko (sticky rice cake) from a pro-bono case he had won.

“My client paid me with biko as payment for my pro bono service,” Pangilinan fondly recalled in Filipino, remembering how one of his first clients gave him the delicacy as a token of appreciation for winning a wrongful dismissal case.

The young lawyer, fresh from law school, had been doing pro bono work when the client presented him with the gift.

“That was my payment. When my father found out, he said, ‘I’ll call you Atty. Biko,’” Pangilinan recalled with a laugh during a campaign break in Batangas on Thursday as the May 2025 midterm elections rapidly approach.

With only 40 days left until the elections, these brief breaks from the whirlwind campaign trail are some of the few moments of respite for Pangilinan.

It was his late father, Donato Pangilinan, who gave him the nickname, even jokingly questioning his then-girlfriend, Sharon Cuneta, about being sure she wanted to be with him, given that most of his cases were pro bono.

“When I brought Sharon to my house and introduced her to my father, my dad asked her, ‘Are you sure about this son of mine?’ I thought we were on the same team,” he laughed. “He said, ‘Why?’ ‘Because you need to teach him how to make a living; all his clients are free, so he should be called abonado (free-of-charge) even though he’s a lawyer.’”

Pangilinan, who has always had a passion for service and leadership, was active in student leadership from elementary school to his time at the University of the Philippines, where he was elected chairman of the UP Student Council in 1986 and the first Student Regent with voting power on the UP Board of Regents in 1987. He was also chosen as the Philippine representative to the ASEAN Committee on Youth Cooperation.