When nine peasant leaders of the KKK were killed and buried in the hacienda of the Kabankalan mayor, Father Dangan was among the first to condemn it.

The second formative event for Lacson was a one-week suspension from his high school after he led a boycott of classes in 1982, around two months before his graduation.

He studied there for three years before transferring to the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD), where he earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 1991.

[4] When he entered the University of the Philippines College of Law, he decided to work full-time during the day and study at night; he graduated in 1996.

[4] In 2007, he attended a month-long Christian leadership training at the Haggai Institute in Singapore, where he delivered the valedictory address for graduates from more than 30 countries.

In 2001, Lacson unsuccessfully ran for Congress in the sixth district of Negros Occidental, under the People Power Coalition that toppled President Joseph Estrada.

In 2010, he ran for the Senate under the Liberal Party coalition of Benigno Aquino III, whom Lacson had been instrumental in convincing to run for the presidency.

[3] He focused his campaign on honesty in government, employment, education, environmental protection, support for migrant workers, and the cultivation of a Filipino culture that would spur national development.

[6] The writer Lester Cavestany summed up Lacson's legislative platform in three points: educational support, scholarship, and "faith in the Filipino".

He is also the lead convenor of the Pilipino Movement for Transformational Leadership (PMTL), a coalition of faith-based organizations from the country's Catholic, Protestant, and evangelical communities that aims to elect honest, competent, and dedicated public servants.

[5] Lacson was the CEO of the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA), which implements good-governance programs in local and national government agencies in the Philippines.

The 12 "little things" are: According to Lacson, it was the Philippine Star founder and columnist Maximo Soliven who opened the door for him and his book.

Inside Lacson's car, Soliven saw a few copies of his book, and four days later, on December 19, he wrote a newspaper column titled "A Filipino of Faith".

Lacson's father-in-law, Teodoro Peña, found the half-brother employment as a utility worker (janitor and messenger) at Palawan State University in Puerto Princesa.