Sol Aragones is the incumbent Representative of the Third District of Laguna in the 18th Congress. Born to a poor family in San Pablo City, Sol overcame all the difficulties early in life and excelled in both academic and extracurricular activities. She was an outstanding public speaker and a distinguished student leader. She obtained her degree in Development Communication, Major in Community Broadcasting, at the University of the Philippines, Los Baños. After finishing college, Sol worked as a news reporter and anchor in ABS-CBN. In her thirteen years in media broadcasting, she received various awards for her outstanding talent, hard work, and dedication to community service. She was conferred with “Natatanging San Pableño” Award, “Natatanging Mamamayan ng Laguna” Award, “UPLB Outstanding Alumni in Media Practice” Award, and “Best Female Field Reporter” Award by the Communications Guild of the Philippines.
Sol Aragones is Marisol Castillo Aragones in real life and we usually see her on TV for news and current affairs over ABS-CBN. She was born on November 7, 1977 to parents Rolando and Nora Aragones and she has a sister who works as a teacher at San Pablo National High School named Maricel Aragones. Sol was raised and grew up in San Pablo City, Laguna, Philippines. She worked as a reporter, broadcaster in various TV and radio shows under ABS-CBN and its subsidiaries.
She spent her elementary education in the San Pablo Central School and finished her high school in Canossa College. She started her college education with Laguna College but later went to the University of the Philippines in Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines where she studied Developmental Communication. Eventually she graduated from her college although the family was financially incapacitated.
After graduation she landed a job as an agent in Easy Call Company, and was promoted to Manager in just a matter of a short time. But because she wanted something new to happen in her career, she auditioned and became a reporter for ABS-CBN. In 1996, she received her first award in the field of broadcasting excellence as Best Reporter and also got nominations for the same category in 1997. Her being a talented and dedicated reporter brought her to places she had never been such as US, Canada and other countries that she had only read in the books.
Sol was married to Paulo Sampelo last December 15, 2005 and they were blessed with a daughter which they named Anica. Sol is considered as a role model of her home province, and they are very proud that a San Pablonian like Sol can bring glory and pride for their barangay. Because of the love of her town mates, Sol decided to try to represent the 3rd District of Laguna as a congresswoman. She resigned from her job as a broadcaster and tried her luck to be a public servant. She won in the said election and is the incumbent congresswoman of the said district.
It was actually in her father’s birthday celebration that she made that decision to join politics. She compares public service to writing a story. It should always go back to the basic needs and cater to the grassroots. Sol Aragones is one of the best journalists in broadcasting media that had joined the political field. Like Noli de Castro and Loren Legarda, she also came from the breed of ABS-CBN who has not displayed exemplary determination for her work, but also was a very dedicated, sincere and honest person, the character traits that are necessary to be an effective public servant.
At the start of the 16th Congress, Sol Aragones was one of the lawmakers that arrived the earliest at the Batasang Pambansa. She reveals that she has filed a bill stating that barangay health workers should be given an increase in terms of incentives. She also assessed that President Aquino had satisfactorily worked in his first three years of his presidency and hopes he continue to do so in the next three remaining years.
