Rodante Marcoleta

Rodante Dizon Marcoleta (English: /mɑːrkəˈlɛtə/, Tagalog: [roˈdante maɾkɔˈlɛta]; born July 29, 1953) is a Filipino television host, lawyer, and politician who has served as a senator of the Philippines since 2025. A former member of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino, he served as the representative for the SAGIP Partylist from 2016 to 2025 and as the representative for the Alagad Party-list from 2004 to 2013. He is the first elected Philippine senator affiliated with the Iglesia ni Cristo.

During his tenure in the lower house, he chaired the Committee on Poverty Alleviation (2009), and later the Special Committee on Globalization and WTO (2018). Marcoleta also chaired the CA Committee on Public Works and Highways, and as assistant majority leader of the Commission on Appointments until he was unanimously expelled from five committees. He served as a senior deputy House majority leader from 2018 to 2019, and as a deputy speaker from 2019 to 2022.

Rodante Dizon Marcoleta was born on July 29, 1953, in Paniqui, Tarlac. His parents are farmers and he is the second among nine siblings.

Marcoleta obtained a master's degree in business administration at the University of the East and a doctorate in public administration at the University of the Philippines Diliman in 2020. He also earned a developmental leadership certificate at Harvard Kennedy School.

Marcoleta was elected to the House of Representatives of the Philippines under the 13th Congress representing the partylist of Alagad from 2004 to 2007, which sought to represent the urban poor sector in Congress. Marcoleta was among the twelve new partylist congressmen who were already millionaires before being sworn in. He was later reelected under Alagad twice to the 15th and 16th Congress, serving from 2007 until 2013.

During his first term as congressman, Marcoleta was criticized for filing numerous bills and resolutions that were unrelated to issues concerning the urban poor, and was considered one of the leading proponents for family planning in the House of Representatives. In June 2005, Marcoleta endorsed the first impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo filed by lawyer Oliver Lozano for "betrayal of public trust" in the aftermath of the Hello Garci scandal. As an administration congressman, Marcoleta explained that his intent was find out how truthful the electoral fraud allegations against the president were, and the decision to endorse was not influenced by the Iglesia ni Cristo. Minority Leader Francis Escudero criticized Marcoleta's decision due to it initiating a one-year-ban on filing for another impeachment, voicing his belief that the complaint was merely for show in order to prevent the opposition from filing its own impeachment complaint against president Arroyo.

In September 2014, the Commission on Audit (COA) reported that Marcoleta channeled ₱15 million of pork barrel funds to dubious NGOs during his term in Congress as Alagad party-list representative, as part of the pork barrel scam involving Janet Lim-Napoles. In 2016, the COA's pork barrel investigation included Marcoleta on its list of lawmakers whose pork barrel funds were allotted to dubious NGOs from 2007 to 2009.

In 2016, under the 17th Congress, he was elected party-list representative of the Social Amelioration and Genuine Intervention on Poverty, more commonly known by its abbreviation SAGIP. He is known as the proponent of slashing the budget of the Commission on Human Rights to ₱1,000 (equivalent to ₱1,155 in 2021). Marcoleta was one of the principal authors of the landmark law Magna Carta of the Poor, which was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in April 2019.