22/01/2026
UP Law faculty member and proud Tuwali named 2025 TOYM awardee
By Frank Cimatu
January 22, 2026
Atty. Raymond Marvic โIceโ C. Baguilat is an outlier among lawyers, instead of stepping on the corporate and juridical ladders, he has quietly built his career on translating the law into something communities can use and ensuring that Indigenous voices are not an afterthought in policy and power.
That body of work was recognized this year when Baguilat, a faculty member of the University of the Philippines College of Law, was named a 2025 Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) Awardee in the category of Law, Human Rights, and Indigenous Peoples.
He is also the cousin of politician, journalist, and activist Teddy Baguilat.
Ice wore his Ifugao headdress called tongoh during the ceremony. As head legal officer of the UP Institute of Human Rights and program head of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program, he has helped reshape legal education to include Indigenous Peoplesโ rights as a core concern rather than a peripheral subject.
His handbooks, course guides, and training modules are used not only by law students, but also by Indigenous leaders, grassroots advocates, and policymakers seeking rights-based and culturally rooted frameworks.
His influence extends well beyond the classroom. Baguilat played a key role in the passage of the Bangsamoro Indigenous Peoples Development Act of 2024 and later helped draft its implementing rules, ensuring that non-Moro Indigenous Peoples in the Bangsamoro region were meaningfully consulted.
At the hometown level, he authored cultural protection ordinances for the municipalities of Kiangan and Hungduan in Ifugao, advancing recognition of ancestral domains, self-governance, and cultural rights across more than 160 Indigenous communities nationwide.
After completing his Master of Laws at the University of Melbourne as an Australia Awards scholar, hus required Re-Entry Action Plan focused on drafting a Tourism Code for Kiangan, one that approached tourism not merely as an industry, but as a human rights and sustainability issue.
โTourism can be a source of livelihood,โ he explains, โbut it has to account for the environment and for the people who will be affectedโfarmers, residents, Indigenous communities.โ Too often, he says, tourism regulations focus narrowly on fees and tour guides. โIt has to go deeper than that.โ
Internationally, he has brought Philippine Indigenous Peoplesโ perspectives into ASEAN and United Nations forums, contributing to global discussions on human rights, democracy, and governance. In the past year, he facilitated a dialogue at UP Law between Indigenous communities and visiting UN experts, including the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Baguilat also serves as a trustee of Indigenous Peoples Rights International, a global NGO that administers a Legal and Sanctuary Fund aimed at addressing the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples and strengthening access to justice for threatened communities. The TOYM Award adds to a growing list of recognitions, including his earlier citation as a finalist for Amnesty International Philippinesโ Most Distinguished Human Rights Defender Award.
Photo from RTVM
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