Cheryl L. DaytecYañgot Biography

Cheryl L. Daytec-Yañgot is a Filipino human rights lawyer and activist. A member of an indigenous cultural community, she is also very passionate about the rights of indigenous peoples. This is reflected in her poetry.

She started writing at a very tender age, beginning with correspondences with missionaries and friends. She was the editor-in-chief of her high school paper. In college she was an editor of two campus papers and won various awards for literary works.

Named one of the Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines in 1999 for exemplary community involvement, activism and academic performance, she continues to search for justice and social equity. She believes that poetry has an indispensable role in societal transformation which has become her obsession. Her poems often deal with injustice and oppression, love and passion, and what she calls 'the enigma in between.'

'Words, spoken loudly by the throng, can put down an oppressive status quo, ' she says, as she encourages people to assert freedom of expression and use it to promote social change. She admires Jesus Christ, Karl Marx, Che Guevara and the Filipino revolutionary Andres Bonifacio 'who consecrated their lives for the freedom of human beings from the shackles of oppression.'

Many of her poems were published, mostly by progressive publications. Some were translated by other poets in Tagalog, the language of the Philippine majority culture.

A practising attorney, Cheryl Daytec-Yañgot is also an Associate Professor in St. Louis University, Baguio City, Philippines.

by: Elton Jun Veloria