Eric Buhain is a Filipino politician and former competitive swimmer who currently serves as the Representative for Batangas's 1st district. He won several medals in swimming competitions like the Southeast Asian Games from 1985 to 1993 and participated in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics. After retiring from swimming, he held several sports administration positions under the Arroyo administration, including chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission. In 2022, he was elected to represent Batangas's 1st district, succeeding his wife in the position.

1. 19th Congress of the
Philippines
Cong. Eric Buhain

2. Eric Buhain
• Eric Reyes Buhain[1] (Tagalog: [ˈbuhaʔɪn];[2] born
April 12, 1970)[3] is a Filipino politician and
former competitive swimmer serving as
the Representative for Batangas's 1st district since
2022.
• He won several medals in the Southeast Asian
Games from 1985 to 1993, and participated in
the 1988 and 1992 Summer Olympics. He later
became a sports administrator. During the Arroyo
administration, he served as chairman of
the Philippine Sports Commission, chairman of
the Games and Amusements Board, and an
executive director of the Bureau of Immigration.

3. Career
• Competitive swimming
• Eric ventured into swimming not because he
dreamed of winning an Olympic gold medal, but
because of his doctor's advice to improve his
lungs. Eric was born with primary lung complex.
He enrolled in a two-week swimming program at
the age of seven. Yet his training was breached by
another illness, hepatitis. However, this didn't stop
him; a year later he was training again and taking
the advance course in swimming, the competitive
course, at age nine. It was at this age that he got
into the varsity swimming team of De La Salle
Santiago Zobel School and vowed to win a gold
medal in the sport.

4. • By 1981, he was a member of the Philippine
Team and swam in the 400-meter individual
medley at age eleven. But it was in his
first Southeast Asian Games in 1985, held
in Bangkok, Thailand, where he snatched the
gold in the same category at the age of fifteen.
He participated in the 1988 Summer
Olympics and was also chosen as the country's
flag bearer for the opening ceremonies.

5. • In the 1989 Southeast Asian Games in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, Buhain broke one of the
existing SEA Games swimming records. In
the 1991 Southeast Asian Games, where
the Philippines was the host, he made a huge
contribution to the gold medal record of the
host country by winning most of the events in
swimming. He was chosen to represent the
Philippines in the 1992 Summer Olympics. He
didn't win any medals in that sporting event.

6. • Even though he won several gold medals in
the 1993 Southeast Asian Games, Buhain
decided to retire from his swimming career. He
was disappointed by the poor government
management that led to a mediocre
performance of the Philippines team in that
sporting event.

7. Sports administration
• Buhain spent his early career in sport
administration as the national training director
of the Philippine Amateur Swimming
Association (PASA) and president of the
Professional Swimming Coaches Academy of
the Philippines (ProSCAP).

8. • In 2001, President Gloria Macapagal-
Arroyo appointed Buhain as the chairman of
the Philippine Sports Commission after
learning of the Philippines poor international
ranking in sports. He instituted reforms that led
to protests by some commissioners and
employees. In 2003, the Philippines increased
its rank in the medal tally in the Southeast
Asian Games and the country won several
medals in the 2002 Asian Games after getting
only a bronze medal in the 1998 Asian Games.

9. • Barely six months before the 2005 Southeast
Asian Games, he was appointed by President
Arroyo as the chairman of the Games and
Amusement Board (GAB), a public agency that
handles professional sporting and gambling
events.
• On March 15, 2010, he left the GAB when
President Arroyo appointed him as a director of
the Bureau of Immigration.

10. Politics
• In the 2022 elections, Buhain is a candidate
for representative of Batangas' 1st district, the
seat his wife is scheduled to vacate. He ran
against his sister-in-law, Lisa Ermita, and won.

11. Personal life
• The oldest child of
former Bacoor, Cavite municipal vice mayor
Cecilia Reyes-Buhain, Eric finished his
elementary and secondary education at the De
La Salle Santiago Zobel School in Ayala
Alabang. In 1991, he earned his Bachelor of
Science degree in finance at La Salle
University in Philadelphia, United States.

12. • Buhain is the husband
of Representative Eileen Ermita-Buhain of
the 1st district of Batangas, and the son-in-law
of former Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita.
• Buhain is the older sibling of state solicitor Atty.
Camille Buhain-Javier,[7] one of the three
women-lawyers behind the popular Filipino
YouTube channel, The Soshal Network.