Atty. Lilibeth Aguzar Llagas

I attribute my success to my kids, Clyde and Claire. Having them gives me strength to continue even if I sometimes feel I want to give up. I persevere to reach my goals despite difficulties to inspire them to do the same. I want to leave them legacies that they would want to continue.

Always cover your bases and watch out for what's behind you. In my area of work in law enforcement, law, and investigations, you cannot expect people to be always transparent. It's not that you're suspicious of everybody, but you have to have ways to ascertain if they're telling the truth. You need to defend what you said and what you did and be prepare to prove what you really said and did when other people claim otherwise.

Be brave and persevere. If you know what you want, keep trying even if the path is difficult. Turn obstacles into stepping stones in order to achieve your goals.

I never thought that I would be a Field Operative in an Anti-Smuggling Task Force under the Office of the President of the Philippines. I was the only female in the Special Operations Group. And as far as I know, I was their only female Operative in the field in the entire country for a certain period of time because then Heads of the Task Force believed that large-scale smuggling and drugs operations are meant for men and dangerous for women. The path to get in was not easy. Were it not because i am a lawyer, they would not have waived the height requirement for me. I cannot match the strength of a man. But because I was confident that intelligence and logic is where women are completely on par with men, I scored very high in the written exams. I made known where I am good at -- and that's how I made it. While I was in Law Enforcement for just a couple of years, I left with Commendations that I thought I can only receive in dreams. Today, I am preparing to embark on another journey - that is to practice Law and defend the wrongfully accused. I want no innocent to go to prison under my watch. I will do everything in my power to make sure that the truth will be revealed.

There is only a small number of Filipinos in the United States and only a few of those are in the fields of Legal, Engineering, and Investigation. In these fields, therefore, for someone like me, opportunities may be limited. People would always have personal biases and being a Filipino in US industries dominated by Americans, it does not come easy. I am currently still not in the place where i expect to be and so I continue to learn and find ways to improve my credentials -- hoping that one day I can finally say "I'm all set".

I value truthfulness and righteousness. The truth is where I get my strength from. No matter how dangerous a situation may be, no matter how scary it is, no matter how powerful your opponents are, if you have the truth, there is not much to worry about. At the end of the day, truth would prevail. And always choose to do the right thing as it will give you peace, freedom from guilt, and right standing with God.