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Juan Fidel Felipe Fuentes Nograles (born August 10, 1986) is a Filipino politician, lawyer and community organizer. He is a member of the 18th Congress of the Republic of the Philippines, representing the 2nd District of Rizal Province.

Family and personal life
Early life and education

Nograles was born on August 10, 1986 at the Makati Medical Center in Makati City, Philippines. He is the second of two children born to George Castillo Nograles and Soledad Fuentes Nograles, both practicing lawyers. His elder sister, Amanda Marie Nograles-Santiago, is also a lawyer. Coming from a family of attorneys and politicians, his paternal Uncle was former Speaker of the House of Representatives, the late Prospero Castillo Nograles (who served from February 5, 2008 to June 30, 2010); his paternal cousin is Karlo Alexei Nograles, who served as congressman for the 1st District of Davao City from 2010 to 2018 and is the incumbent Cabinet Secretary to Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. His other paternal cousin is Jericho Jonas Nograles, an incumbent Philippine Congressman representing PBA Party List.

Nograles completed his primary and secondary education at the Ateneo de Manila Grade School in 2002 and Ateneo de Manila High School in 2005. In 2008, Nograles graduated cum laude from the Ateneo de Manila University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Management Economics. In 2012, Nograles graduated Second Honors from the Ateneo de Manila University with a Juris Doctor degree where he ranked 9th out of 180 graduates of law. He passed the bar examinations that year.

As the age of 19, Nograles already had his first leadership position as he was elected Vice President of the premier organization of young investors, the Ateneo Management Economics Organization. At the Ateneo de Manila School of Law, Nograles served as a Project Leader of the Teehankee Center for the Rule of Law where he organized a jail de-congestion project for the Rizal Provincial Jail. As one of the top students in his graduating law class in Ateneo de Manila, Nograles was the only fresh graduate employed by the elite Quisumbing Torres Law Firm, the Philippine arm of Baker & Mckenzie International.

In September 2014, Nograles won First Place in an International Rule of Law Essay Writing Competition organized by the Teehankee Center for the Rule of Law. His legal essay entitled, "The ASEAN R2P Challenge: Establishing a Regional Responsibility to Protect Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources" was chosen among thousands of submissions from all the ASEAN countries. In his groundbreaking essay, Nograles denounced the recent flexing of Chinese military muscle over the West Philippine Sea and claimed that certain natural fault lines and political fissures have sown discord among the ASEAN countries. In this regard, Nograles argued that our discourse on the principle of Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources (PSNR) has evolved from state rights to state duties. As a duty, PSNR calls for ASEAN solidarity where each member state has a responsibility to extend foreign aid and assistance to the Philippines.

Law Career
Legal Researcher and Law Professor

In 2014, Nograles worked as a Court Attorney V in the Supreme Court of the Philippines under Justice Martin Villarama where he conducted legal research and drafted judicial opinions on landmark human rights cases dealing with fundamental liberties such as alleged extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances by agents of the state and land grabbing by domestic and transnational companies.

At the same time, while working in the Supreme Court, Nograles served as a part-time Professor of International Human Rights Law in the Lyceum of the Philippines College of Law in Makati City where he established the first Legal Clinic of Lyceum. Under Nograles’s management and supervision, law students of Lyceum were deployed to different urban poor communities in Manila where they adopted a human rights-based approach in dealing with various sectoral, socio-political and legal issues such as land security and domestic violence against women and children. In addition, Nograles also taught Corporation Law in the Philippine Christian University College of Law which caters to the low-income and part-time law students of Manila.

Nograles also taught Political Law in the De La Salle University College of Law where he served as a Supervising Attorney in the Developmental Legal Advocacy Clinic which provided law students with an opportunity to render pro bono legal services under the supervision of a practicing lawyer.

Published Works

Currently, Nograles has three scholarly expositions published by the prestigious Ateneo Law Journal which have helped refine legal scholarship in the Philippines.

In his first publication, entitled "Capitalizing on Capital: The Supreme Court’s Obiter Dictum in Defining Capital under the Constitution", Nograles proposed a legal framework for understanding the definition of “capital” under Section 11, Article XII of the Constitution in light of the landmark decision of the Supreme Court in Heirs of Wilson P. Gamboa v. Teves.

In his second publication, entitled "Assailing the Constitutionality of Executive Order No. 79 on the Ground of Ultra Vires Executive Legislation," Nograles recommended limitations to, and guidelines for the exercise of the rule-making powers of the President so as to avoid encroachment on the legislative powers of Congress.

In his third publication, entitled "Unmasking the Unhappy Freak of English Law: A Legal Framework for the Application of the Control Test to Determine the Nationality of the Corporation Sole," Nograles critically analyzed the corporate and political structure of religious corporations and proposed a legal framework for determining their nationality in light of the foreign equity restrictions under the Constitution.

In the Philippine Resources Journal (May 2014), Nograles wrote "Disservice on Service: The Dichotomy in the Cost-Recovery Mechanism of the Service Contract System under the Oil Exploration and Development Act of 1972," where Nograles proposed amendments to the oil exploration regulatory laws.

In addition to Nograles’s commitment to legal scholarship, he also has a weekly column in Saksi and Pilipino Mirror where he provides pragmatic legal solutions to simple legal problems such as small-claims civil cases and breach of contracts. For clarification and further questions, the regular readers of his column often send email queries to Nograles who then takes time out of his busy schedule to respond to his readers individually.

Harvard Law School

In 2015, Nograles pursued his Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Harvard Law School where he advanced his knowledge and training in International Human Rights Law and gained a global and multicultural perspective of access to justice measures and initiatives. As an active member of the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project, Nograles applied his expertise in International Human Rights Law to represent indigent inmates detained in the Greater Boston area and charged with parole revocation and rescission proceedings before the Massachusetts Parole Board. In his capacity as Project Leader of the Harvard Law and International Development Society, Nograles organized a research team to examine the environmental implications of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill of 2010. Aside from his involvement in public interest law and human rights, Nograles also served as Editor for the Harvard International Law Journal and the Harvard Law and Policy Review.

In Harvard Law School, Nograles wrote a Thesis entitled "Expanding the Regime of Transitional Justice to Economic Crimes and Large-Scale Corruption," where he argued that Transitional Justice mechanisms adopted by postcolonial states should extend to economic crimes. This is used as a primary reference material in Anti-Corruption and Human Rights classes in Harvard Law.

After graduating from Harvard in 2016, Nograles briefly served as Assistant Secretary in the Office of the President before being appointed as Assistant Provincial Administrator of Rizal Province. It was here that Nograles applied his Harvard education and training to establish numerous access to justice measures and initiatives in Rizal Province such as “Lakbay Hustisya,” “Oplan Birthright,” and “Rizal Street Law.”

Legal Advocacy and Community Organizer

In 2014, Nograles conducted extensive legal research and prepared the draft judicial opinion of the Supreme Court in the landmark international human rights case of Pedro Arigo v. Scott Swift (G.R. No. 206510, Sept. 6, 2014). In this case, a United States warship ran aground on the South Shoal of Tubbataha Reefs which resulted in massive environmental damage and degradation adversely affecting the provinces of Palawan, Antique, Aklan, Guimaras, Iloilo, Negros Oriental, Zamboanga del Norte, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi. Thereafter, numerous civil society groups filed a class suit claiming multimillion damages against the United States of America which was denied by the Supreme Court in a groundbreaking decision culling principles and legal doctrines from International Environmental Law, International Human Rights Law, and customary rules from other jurisdictions. Through the extensive legal research of Nograles, this landmark decision found its way in the jurisprudence of International Environmental Litigation and Human Rights Law.

In 2017, Nograles established a community-based legal advocacy which he called “Lakbay Hustisya” or the Justice Caravan Project. Composed of hundreds of pro bono lawyers, volunteer law students, and paralegals, “Lakbay Hustisya” provided free mobile legal services (consisting of free legal advice, notarization, and drafting of legal instruments) to more than 2,000 indigent clients around Rizal Province. For example, last July 2017, “Lakbay Hustisya” was in the Antipolo Cathedral where more than ten (10) mobile legal clinics were organized on the parking lots of the church. Each mobile legal clinic provided specific free legal services such as legal advice on annulment and legal separation, notarization of affidavits and sinumpaang salaysay, and drafting of contracts of sale. Accordingly, indigent clients queued before the mobile legal clinic which catered to their specific legal concern. After two days of rendering free legal services, “Lakbay Hustisya” successfully enhanced access to justice of more than 600 indigent clients in Antipolo City.

“Lakbay Hustisya” also institutionalized mobile legal clinics around the different Barangay Halls of Rizal where Nograles himself provided free legal advice on simple legal problems such as marital disputes, collection of unpaid debts, cyber libel, domestic violence against battered women, child custody, and land disputes. Working day and night in the office of the Baranggay Captain and on top of his already taxing duties as the APA of the province, Nograles gave free legal advice to 30-50 indigent clients per day for three days a week within a six-month period. Thus, by immersing himself in grassroots community service, Nograles became more aware of the daily problems encountered by the front-liners of public service.

Moreover, determined to enhance the Barangay Justice System as an alternative mode of dispute resolution in order to de-congest the dockets of the courts, Nograles organized free trainings and seminars for the Lupong Tagapamayapa on basic provisions of the Revised Penal Code, Civil Code, and Republic Act No. 9262 or the Anti-Violence against Women and their Children Act of 2004.

In 2018, Nograles organized “Oplan Birthright,” a legal and social advocacy aimed to provide members of the Dumagat tribe and other ethnic minorities in Montalban, Rizal, with free late registration of birth certificates. As a human rights advocate, Nograles firmly believed in the fundamental right to identity of all people especially the marginalized and underrepresented sectors of society who do not have access to local civil registry services. Thus, Nograles partnered with the local civil registrar of Montalban, Rizal to award free birth certificates to more than 1,000 members of the Dumagat tribe and other ethnic minorities in Montalban, Rizal. This allowed them to complete academic requirements in school and to fulfill documentary requirements with employers.

That same year, Nograles organized the “Rizal Street Law Program,” a human rights-based approach to educate the public school teachers of San Mateo, Rizal, about various laws and regulations about their duties and responsibilities such as the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers, Anti-Bullying Law, Child Abuse Law, and Dangerous Drugs Law. By inviting volunteer lawyers and law professors, Nograles organized a series of free legal seminars and trainings in public schools in San Mateo, Rizal, which catered to more than 3,000 public school teachers in Rizal.

Political Career
In 2019, Nograles joined the NPC-PDP Laban coalition and ran for public office as Representative of the 2nd Congressional District of Rizal. On May 13, 2019, during the 2019 Philippine general election, he defeated Maridee Rodiguez, wife of then incumbent Representative Isidro Rodriguez Jr., who represented a powerful political dynasty that has ruled the province for more than two decades. Nograles won a landslide victory by garnering 210,710 votes as against his contender who gathered 137,567 votes. At only 32 years old, Nograles became the youngest Representative in the history of Rizal.

Although Nograles is one of the youngest lawmakers in the 18th Congress, he was already elected by the majority bloc as House Assistant Majority Leader and Vice Chairman of the Committee on Justice, Committee on Higher and Technical Education, and Committee on Indigenous Peoples.

On August 7, 2019, Nograles joined Lakas-CMD, a center-right political party led by House Majority Floor Leader and Lakas-CMD President Martin Romualdez. His transfer was already expected after he was elected Assistant Majority Floor Leader under Romualdez’s powerful House Committee on Rules and as vice chair of the Committee on Justice. Romualdez administered the oath of membership to Nograles in a simple dinner gathering organized by former Philippine President and House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's son, Pampanga 2nd District Representative Juan Miguel Arroyo.

As a legislator, Nograles significantly contributed to the enrichment of Philippine legislation on access to justice measures and initiative. One of his pioneering pet bills is House Bill (HB) No. 2993 entitled, the "Legal Aid Program Act of 2019." As the first legislative policy on free legal aid in the country, HB No. 2993 seeks to mandate all law schools in the Philippines to formulate and implement a comprehensive national legal aid program for all their law students who will then be required to render a minimum number of hours of pro bono legal services as a prerequisite for graduation. To further enhance HB No. 2993. Nograles introduced the "PAO Modernization Act of 2019" which seeks, among others, to expand the free legal services offered by the PAO to the complainant in criminal cases.

Nograles also passed measures reforming the "Katarungang Pambarangay Law" by modernizing mechanisms for community-based dispute resolution and compulsory mediation in order to aid the de-congestion of Philippine regular courts.