Jacinto Paras

Jacinto Villegas Paras (September 11, 1953) is a Philippine politician.

Jacinto Paras was born on September 11, 1953. He was a graduate of the St. Francis College Guihulngan and then attended University of the Philippines Diliman from which he got Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. From 1980 to 1983 he attended De La Salle University from which he graduated with the Master of Business Administration and from 1981 to 1985 he studied law at the same place from which he got Bachelor of Laws degree.

Early career

Jacinto Paras had served as mayor of Guihulngan from 1986 to 1988 and then from 1988 to 1989 was an assistant secretary at the Department of Agrarian Reform of the Philippines. From 1989 to 1992 he was an assistant director of the Philippine Department of Transportation and later worked at the its Action Center. Jacinto Paras was a President of the Pantranco Bus Company from 1990 to 1992 and during the same years worked for the United Coconut Planters Bank as its Director. He held this position at the Philippine Communications Satellite Corporation between 1993 and 1998 and in 1995 became President and CEO of the Call Telecoms Inc.

Between 1998 and 2007 Jacinto Paras held numerous memberships to various committees including Committee on Agriculture, Appropriations, Energy, Justice, Ways of Means and Committee on Franchises, the latter of which he became vice-chairman.

During the time as chairman of the Committee on Transportation and Communications Paras had overseen constructions of Manila Metro Rail Transit System and Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 as well as construction of the Francisco Bangoy International Airport (formerly Davao International Airport) and Iloilo International Airport.

Political career

Jacinto Paras was elected as the 1st district representative of Negros Oriental in 1998 and served there for three terms till 2007. In 2010, after a three-year rest from politics he tried but failed to run for the Negros Oriental congressional seat against Jocelyn Limkaichong, losing to her by 46,781 votes. In 2016 he balloted to run for the House of Representatives of the Philippines but failed again and therefore became a volunteer lawyer at the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption. Jacinto Paras had also served as a textmate under Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II who in cahoots with him suggested a case against Risa Hontiveros, after her criticism of President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs campaign. In 2017, Jacinto Paras had denied impeachment complaint against Andres D. Bautista and Arthur Carandang, calling it "botched" and the same year accused Conchita Carpio Morales of conspiring against the government.

On April 27, 2017, Jacinto Paras had criticized the maltreatment of the Overseas Filipino Workers who came to Kuwait illegally.

In 2018 Duterte appointed Jacinto as an undersecretary of the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment.

In 2001 he was accused by Newsbreak of being involved in a Gang of Five, an organization which reportedly received P2 million in bribes which was used to delay congressional hearing of the Philippine government.

On March 20, 2017, Paras was caught by the closed-circuit television stealing an iPhone X from Akbayan representative Tom Villarin who later demanded him to be barred from the Philippine House of Representatives.

In 2018 it was rumored by the Dobol B sa News TV that Jacinto Paras and Silvestre Bello III from the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment got into a disagreement when Bello assumed that Paras had an extortion issue. That extortion issue was taken into consideration by the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission and is still in early stages of progress.