Lani Cayetano

Lani Cayetano (full married name: Maria Laarni Lopez-Cayetano) returned as mayor of Taguig City when she won in the 2022 election. She was first elected to the position in 2010 and served three full terms until 2019.

She graduated with a degree in mass communication from Centro Escolar University, and finished a special course in Innovative and Developmental Local Governance and Policy Making for Local Chief Executives and Legislators at the University of the Philippines. In 2008, she was recognized as one of CEU's Most Distinguished Alumnae for her contributions to politics.

Following the split of Taguig City into two legislative districts in 2004, she first ran and won in 2007 as the first representative of the 1st District. She served for only one term and then decided to run for mayor in 2010. After serving three terms as mayor, she ran again for representative in 2019, this time in the 2nd District to succeed her sister-in-law Pia Cayetano.

In 2019, a resident petitioned the Commission on Elections to cancel the candidacies of Lani and her husband, former senator Alan Peter Cayetano, after they registered different home addresses to run in two different districts. The Comelec dismissed the petition.

After only one term in Congress, Lani returned to being mayor in 2022.

She is the first, and so far the only, female chief executive of Taguig since its conversion into a city in 2004. Under Lani Cayetano’s her term as mayor, the city won with finality its long-standing territorial dispute with Makati City over ownership of the EMBO (Enlisted Men’s Barrio) barangays: Cembo, Comembo, East Rembo, Pembo, Pitogo, Post Proper Northside, Post Proper Southside, Rizal, South Cembo, and West Rembo. Some Makati City government employees filed charges of illegal detention and grave coercion against Cayteno and other Taguig City officials for alleged harassment stemming from the territorial dispute.

Lani Cayetano also expressed support for the proposal to transfer the House of Representatives to Bonifacio Global City, which is governed by Taguig City. In 2018, she welcomed the merger of the old Makati and Manila stock exchanges in Bonifacio Global City. She is also credited for founding the Progressive Ladies’ League of the Philippines, and establishing the Angat Lahat Multi-Purpose Cooperative.

In 2015, the Office of the Ombudsman filed charges with the Sandiganbayan against Cayetano for allegedly preventing the city council from convening in August 2010. The Sandiganbayan dismissed the case later on.

She has been married for 20 years to Alan Peter Cayetano, whose family has held positions in the national and local levels.

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