Pilar Juliana "Pia" Schramm Cayetano (Tagalog: [ˈpija kajɛˈtano]; born March 22, 1966), also known as Pia Compañera Cayetano, is a Filipino politician, lawyer, economist, and television host serving as a senator since 2019, a position she previously held from 2004 to 2016. She was also the representative of Taguig's 2nd district from 2016 to 2019 and was one of the deputy speakers. Cayetano is a member of the Nacionalista Party.
Cayetano was born to a political family currently based in Taguig. Her father was the late former senator Rene Cayetano; her younger brother, Alan Peter, is a fellow incumbent senator who formerly represented the Taguig–Pateros district and became Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines during the 18th Congress; another younger brother, Rene Carl, is a former councilor of Muntinlupa; her youngest brother, Lino, was mayor of Taguig; and her sister-in-law, Lani, is the incumbent mayor of Taguig.
Cayetano authored the Expanded Senior Citizens Act, Expanded Breastfeeding Promoting Act, the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012, and the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) Law. She earned her economics (cum laude) and law degrees at the University of the Philippines, where she played volleyball for the UP Lady Maroons team that won the 1983 UAAP title. She has also played for the national women's volleyball team. Cayetano is also a triathlete. She is currently one of the hosts of the GMA public service program Cayetano in Action with Boy Abunda.
She has been embroiled in various controversies, becoming one of the largest pork barrel spenders during the pork barrel scandal, a known protector of President Duterte's controversial Philippine drug war policy which killed thousands of civilian women and children, a defender of Duterte's misogynystic remarks against women, the chief architect in the Senate for the legalization of the controversial Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) which led to the expansion of illegal citizenships, prostitution, slavery, and other crimes in the country, the main senator to block Senate investigations on the millions of stolen money during the 2019 SEA Games, one of the senators who blocked and refused to sign the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee report on the flood control scandal where her family was allegedly involved in anomalous projects worth billions of pesos, a fake news peddler in Facebook, one of the senators involved in the fake shooting incident in the Senate, and one of the politicians who had insertions, specifically ₱4.7 billion, in the 2025 national budget, reported as the most corrupt in Philippine history.
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Early life and education
Cayetano was born on March 22, 1966, to Renato "Compañero" Cayetano, who would later become Senator, and German-American former school teacher Sandra Schramm.
Cayetano took up Bachelor of Arts in economics at the University of the Philippines Diliman, and graduated cum laude in 1985. She then took up Bachelor of Laws at the UP College of Law, graduating in 1991 with academic distinction, #7 in her class. She also became a member of the Honor Society, Order of the Purple Feather.
Legal career
From 1992 to 1995, Cayetano was an associate lawyer at the Castillo, Laman Tan, and Pantaleon Law Offices, specializing in corporate and intellectual property law. From 1996 to 1999, she was an officer for the legal and corporate affairs of the Belle Corporation and its affiliates, including the gaming conglomerate BW Resources. In 2000, she was general counsel for the Philweb Corporation. In 2001, she was appointed chairwoman of the Maxi Group of Companies, a retailer and distributor of educational toys, infant apparel and accessories. In 2012, she opened her own cafe, Slice, at Bonifacio High Street in Taguig.
Cayetano and her brother Alan Peter are the titular hosts of public service program Cayetano in Action with Boy Abunda (CIA with BA), which premiered in February 2023 on GMA Network.
Political career
Following the death of her father, Senator Renato Cayetano, due to liver cancer on June 25, 2003, several legislators, including senators, encouraged Pia Cayetano to run for office. As a result, she ran for a Senate seat in the 2004 elections under the support of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Cayetano ran under the pro-Arroyo coalition called Koalisyon ng Katapatan at Karanasan para sa Kinabukasan (K-4). Initially, she was a virtual unknown to the electorate, but with the liberalization of political advertisements, she gained popularity with her TV advertisement as a runner, cyclist, and triathlete and as a new host of her father's TV program Compañero y Compañera for a short stint. She won in the elections, landing in the sixth position.
In 2006, she and her brother Alan had a fallout against President Arroyo and First Gentleman Mike Arroyo who called the Cayetano siblings “ungrateful”. This stemmed from allegations of then Taguig Pateros Rep. Alan that the Arroyos kept a secret multi-million-dollar German bank account. It was later revealed that the Arroyo government helped bankroll the Cayetano siblings' political campaigns, which Pia later admitted.
During the 112th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Manila, Cayetano was elected president of the 10th Meeting of Women Parliamentarians during the sidelines of the annual meeting. On April 17, 2008, she was elected for a two-year term, president of the Committee of Women Parliamentarians of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) during its 118th General Assembly in Cape Town, South Africa. As the first Filipino and Asian to head it, she ran unopposed and took over from Uruguay's Mónica Xavier. This is the highest position held by any Filipino or Asian in the history of the IPU. In 2009, she criticized President Arroyo for a 1 million-worth dinner in New York City.
In the 2010 presidential elections, Cayetano backed the presidential bid of Manny Villar while she was running for reelection as a guest candidate under the Nacionalista Party. She won, landing in sixth place.
During this period, senators Pia Cayetano and Alan Peter Cayetano channeled a large amount of pork barrel funds to Taguig City where Pia Cayetano's sister-in-law Lani Cayetano was serving as mayor. Pia Cayetano and Alan Peter Cayetano were the biggest pork spenders in the Senate, having spent ₱277,006,092 and ₱256,700,000 of their pork barrel in 2012 as revealed during the pork barrel scandal investigations.
Personal life
Pia Cayetano is an advocate of sports as part of a holistic youth development program, prevention of diseases, and the need for a healthy and fit lifestyle. She is the founder of Gabriel Symphony Foundation which was established following the death of her son Gabriel, who was diagnosed with multiple congenital anomalies. The foundation helps children with disabilities and life-threatening ailments.
She has three siblings: Alan Peter, an incumbent Senator who formerly served as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and President of the Senate of the Philippines; Rene Carl, a former councilor of Muntinlupa and the owner of the collectible figurine store "Maxicollector"; and Lino Edgardo, a television and movie director, former Barangay Chairman of Barangay Fort Bonifacio in Taguig, former congressional representative of the second district of Taguig, and former Mayor of Taguig. Cayetano is a mother to two daughters, Maxine and Nadine, and a son Gabriel, who died from complications of a rare chromosomal disorder in 2001. She is also a foster parent to Rene Lucas.
She is also the founder of the Compañero Rene Cayetano Foundation in memory of her father, which helps the underprivileged in the areas of health, education, and environment, as well as Pinay In Action (PIA), which promotes health, fitness, and women empowerment.