Celia Lagman Sevilla is a niece of Hermon C. Lagman, a human rights and labor lawyer who was forcibly disappeared during the Ferdinand Marcos Sr. dictatorship. She has been active in the human rights movement for over two decades and is the incumbent Chairperson of the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND). She is also a former National Coordinator of the Samahan ng mga Anak ng Desaparecidos (Association of Children of the Disappeared).
Celia served as a member of the legislative staff of Representative Edcel C. Lagman for a total of 15 years. Rep. Lagman is the principal author of the first anti-enforced disappearance law in Asia, as well as other landmark pieces of human rights legislation including those: prohibiting the death penalty, penalizing torture, and recognizing and granting reparation to the martial law human rights violations victims.
Bridging her legislative work and her wider human rights advocacy, Celia conceptualized the formation of the Mambabatas para sa Karapatang Pantao (Makatao) or Legislators for Human Rights. Launched in 2018, Makatao is a non-partisan group composed of human rights champions who are members of the Philippine Congress.
Celia graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of the Philippines Diliman.