ADAMSON UNIVERSITY that he could persuade and need never resort to force.
Only such a man could become a
College of Law
PROBLEMS IN LEGAL ETHICS
Atty. Gregorio Tanaka Viterbo Jr.
I. INTRODUCTORY TOPICS
A. The Good Lawyer – Focus on Ka Pepe Diokno (Jose Wright Diokno)
Letter of Ka Pepe to his son Popoy 23 October 1972
"Dear Popoy, when you asked me about a month ago, for a list of books that you could read
to start studying law, I was loathe to prepare the list because I felt that you would be wasting
your time studying law in this "new society."
"I am still not sure that it would be worth your while to do so."
"A few days ago, while chatting with a soldier, he asked, in all seriousness and sincerity,
"Pero sir, kailangan pa ba ang mga abogado ngayon?" And in a way that perhaps he did not
intend, he raised a perfectly valid question."
"A lawyer lives in and by the law; and there is no law when society is ruled, not by reason,
but by will-worse, by the will of one man."
"A lawyer strives for justice; and there is no justice when men and women are imprisoned
not only without guilt, but without trial."
"A lawyer must work in freedom; and there is no freedom when conformity is extracted by
fear and criticism silenced by force."
"A lawyer builds on facts. He must seek truth; and there is no truth when facts are
suppressed, news is manipulated and charges are fabricated."
"Worse, when the Constitution is invoked to justify outrages against freedom, truth and
justice, when democracy is destroyed under the pretext of saving it, law is not only denied–it
is perverted."
"And what need do our people have for men and women who would practice perversion?"
"Yet the truth remains true that never have our people had greater need than today for great
lawyers, and for young men and women determined to be great lawyers."
"Great lawyers-not brilliant lawyers. A scoundrel may be, and often is, brilliant; and the
greater the scoundrel, the more brilliant the lawyer. But only a good man can become a
great lawyer: for only a man who understands the weaknesses of men because he has
conquered them in himself; who has the courage to pursue his ideals though he knows them
to be unattainable; who tempers his conviction with respect for those of others because he
realizes he may be mistaken; who deals honorably and fairly with all, because to do
otherwise would diminish him as well as them–only such a man would so command respect
MARCELO, Ma. Costa Rica B.
great lawyer. Otherwise, "what you are speaks so loudly, cannot hear what you say."
"For men and women of this kind, our country will always have need–and now more than
ever. True, there is little that men of goodwill can do now to end the madness that holds our
nation in its grip. But we can,even now, scrutinize our past; try to pinpoint where we went
wrong; determine what led to this madness and what nurtured it; and how, when it ends, we
can make sure that it need never happen again."
"For this madness must end–if not in my lifetime, at least in yours. We Filipinos are
proverbially patient, but we are also infinitely tough and ingeniously resourceful. Our entire
history as a people has been a quest for freedom and dignity; and we will not be denied our
dreams."
"So this madness will end; the rule of force will yield to the rule of law. Then the country will
need its great lawyers, its great engineers, its great economists and managers, the best of
its men and women to clear the shambles and restore the foundations of that noble and truly
Filipino society for which our forefathers fought, bled and died. Your father, PEPE."
Jose W. Diokno: The Scholar-Warrior BY JOSE DALISAY, JR.
To young Filipinos for whom EDSA 1 and the martial-law dictatorship are now vague if not
vanished memories, the name of Jose Wright Diokno—“Pepe” to his friends and
contemporaries—may be a distant echo. It is a name often spoken in the same breath as
Ninoy Aquino, Tanny Tañada, Chino Roces, Jovy Salonga, Gasty Ortigas, and a few other
battle-scarred fighters for freedom, but the association, while uplifting for all, tends to blur the
individual in favor of the group, as these unselfish gentlemen would have preferred.
But every hero is individually formed in the crucible of struggle, every heroic act individually
chosen. Each hero emerges like a pearl in an oyster from the womb of resistance, their
brightest and strongest qualities rising to the surface, the hardened accretions of personal
values tested in the arena of public issues.
For a man such as Pepe Diokno—champion of human rights, nationalism, and Philippine
sovereignty—heroism was never something to be actively sought by an illustrious few. It
was, rather, a collective virtue immanent in the people, a people awakened to their rights,
opportunities, and civic responsibilities. It was a hero who led a consistent life of thinking the
right ideas and doing the right things—a life which, by its very nature, and despite its search
for quietude in a roiling universe, would inevitably court danger and alarm.
Diokno’s was such a life, that of a lover of books who enjoyed nothing more than to lie prone
in his library, devouring tome after tome of fiction, education, and legal philosophy, and yet
who could not and did not refuse to march in the streets or argue in court as an impassioned
combatant for his most cherished principles.
Unlike some of his contemporaries, Diokno was never flashy, never sought attention except
to pursue or prove a point. He came from a conservative, fairly privileged background, but
eschewed flamboyance; he was very well educated and literate in several languages, but
forsook bombast for substance. He had a wry sense of humor—demonstrated by a possibly
apocryphal story about his deadpan reaction to his reported dourness (“You know me—
Diokno, no joke.”)—but he preferred to laugh at the jokes of others. He was, at one time, a
Page 1
Secretary of Justice and then a Senator of the Republic—but he campaigned alone, traveled
without bodyguards, and never kept or fired a gun in his political life. When he died, it was in
the company of those he held dearest—his family, and his books.
Family background
Pepe graduated as valedictorian of his high school class in De La Salle College in 1937
Many of those books came from the library of his father Ramon, himself a lawyer who rose
to be become a senator and later a Justice of the Supreme Court. Ramon’s father, in turn,
was the son of a revolutionary general, Ananias Diokno, who had liberated much of Panay
from the Spaniards in 1898. The Dioknos hailed from Taal, Batangas, but Pepe was born in
Manila on Feb. 26, 1922, to Ramon and his wife Leonor Wright, an American mestiza.
(When Pepe’s daughter Maris took this subject up with him and asked him if his lineage
therefore made him one-fourth or one-eighth American, Pepe huffed and said, “One hundred
percent Filipino!”)
It was a large family; Ramon had married Leonor after the death of his first wife, and there
were ten children in the brood (Pepe himself, by coincidence, would also have ten children).
As the son of a general who went on to fight the Americans, Ramon Diokno—despite the
irony of marrying a mestiza—loathed the United States and forbade the speaking of English
in his home. Thus Pepe grew up speaking Spanish, and learned English only from a tutor, as
part of his schooling.
Ramon Diokno had been an active lawyer and political figure, serving as a councilor in
Batangas and later as a campaign manager for and counsel to President Manuel L. Quezon
before serving in the Senate and the Supreme Court. Not surprisingly, he wanted his son
Jose to take up law as well; a half-brother of Pepe’s had also finished law, but died young.
The boy resisted and, after graduating as valedictorian of his high school class in De La
Salle College in 1937, he studied commerce instead. Thanks to repeated acceleration, he
graduated at the tender age of 17 also from La Salle, summa cum laude. He took the CPA
board examinations—for which he had to secure special dispensation, since he was too
young—and topped them with a rating of 81.18 percent.
Self-taught bar-topnotcher
At this point, he could no longer ignore his father’s suasions, and he enrolled in law at the
University of Sto. Tomas. He had wanted to go to the University of the Philippines and would
later send his own children there, but his conservative Catholic parents would have none of
it. As it happened, after just a year of study, the Second World War broke out. Pepe’s father
told him to use the time to read, and picked out the books for him to plow through. Pepe’s
passion for learning manifested itself immediately; after reading a couple of books, he went
to the old man and asked to be tested, but the old man—as Maris Diokno recalls her father’s
story—told him, “You either know it or you don’t. Just read.”
He continued reading, and when the war was over he took the bar exams in 1944 under a
special dispensation from the Court, since he had never completed his law degree. Again
Pepe Diokno topped them with a rating of 95.3 percent—along with Jovito Salonga, who had
gone the full route. At this time, his father took ill and asked him to take over the firm.
One of his first important cases, as it turned out, involved defending his father. Ramon
Diokno ran for the Senate in the first postwar government in 1946, and won, but he objected
MARCELO, Ma. Costa Rica B.
to parity rights for American businessmen—a nationalist stance supported by Jesus Lava,
Luis Taruc, and the communist-affiliated Democratic Alliance in the Lower House. To punish
Ramon, his enemies filed a case of election fraud against him. Pepe rose to his father’s
defense, and eventually they won the case, but only at the end of the term in 1949. The
father-and-son team must have made quite an impression; Lorenzo Tañada would later
recall the young Pepe assisting his father in court, the both of them blessed with
phenomenally photographic memories. (After winning his case, Ramon Diokno was then
appointed to the Supreme Court, and died in Baguio during one of the tribunal’s summer
sessions.)
Young lawyer
Pepe, his wife Carmen, with Pepe's parents, Ramon and Leonor. Wedding photo, 1949.In
the meanwhile Pepe’s life took another happy turn. He had met a pretty Bulakeña named
Carmen Reyes Icasiano at a party; they had come with their respective dates. But Pepe and
Nena soon fell in love, and they were married in 1949, after a two-year courtship. All in all,
they would have ten children: Carmen Leonor, Jose Ramon, Maria de la Paz, Maria Serena,
Maria Teresa, Maria Socorro, Jose Miguel, Jose Manuel, Maria Victoria, and Martin Jose.
The last, Pepe and Nena took in as a two-week old infant in 1967.
Pepe Diokno the young lawyer found corporate law remunerative but boring. He took on
some corporate cases, but what he really enjoyed was litigation, the presentation of
evidence. Again the passion showed in his eloquence; when he argued a case before the
Supreme Court, other lawyers flocked to watch him and to listen to him argue fluently in both
English and Spanish.
One of Pepe’s clients and closest friends was Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson, a powerful
politician who was poised to run for the presidency. Diokno had successfully defended the
outspoken Lacson against a libel charge, stemming from Lacson’s acerbic attacks on his
radio program; Lacson also wrote a column for a newspaper that Pepe edited. Maris Diokno
remembers how close the mayor became to the family, who were then living in a house in
Parañaque, near the Baclaran church. Lacson used to go the house at six in the morning
and cook breakfast for everyone before waking them up.
Secretary of Justice
In 1961, Diokno was appointed Justice Secretary by President Diosdado Macapagal. It was
a political anomaly, because Macapagal was a Liberal Party stalwart while Diokno was a
lifelong Nacionalista. But Macapagal had asked the capable Lacson—despite Lacson’s also
being a Nacionalista—to help run his presidential campaign, and Lacson had agreed only on
condition that Diokno be appointed to head Justice if Macapagal won. And so it happened.
In any event the union did not last long; in March 1962, Sec. Diokno ordered a raid on a firm
owned by American businessman Harry S. Stonehill, who was suspected of tax evasion and
bribery, among other crimes. Stonehill reputedly bragged about having big-name politicians
in his pocket—but Jose W. Diokno was not one of them. The arrest and the subsequent
corruption scandal resulted in an embarrassed Macapagal having to fire several Cabinet
members—including, inexplicably, Sec. Diokno, who had found the temerity to arrest
Stonehill. “He simply received a letter from the President, accepting a resignation he never
submitted,” Maris recalls.
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Diokno received death threats because of the Stonehill case; the family had to move
important papers from one hiding place to another, and Mayor Lacson assigned them a
“driver,” a big, dark plainclothesman from the Manila Police Department.
Senator
Campaign flyer, 1983.
In 1963, Pepe Diokno was invited by the Nacionalistas to run for the Senate, and he agreed.
He won, and would serve two terms: from 1963 to 1969, and from 1969 until the declaration
of martial law in 1972.
For the growing Diokno family, it was a happy interlude. The girls came to his office after
school and played in the anteroom until it was time to go. It was a family that prayed the
rosary every night, led by Pepe himself. Family outings usually meant piling up in the big
black car for a trip to the PECO bookstore, where they would stay all day, poring over books.
Whenever Pepe and Nena went abroad, the children got more boxes of books, such as
those by Enid Blyton. (The only exception, Maris says, was a brother of Pepe’s who had
aged with a child’s mind, and for him Pepe always had a toy.)
Pepe himself loved novels about cowboys and Indians, devouring them while lying flat on his
stomach. After lunch and his afternoon siesta, he listened to Tony Falcon, Agent X-44; he
also loved kung fu movies. He was generous with money, but he never kept money in his
pockets; he gave everything to Nena. So he often found himself strapped for cash, and Nena
would have to run after him before leaving the house to make sure his wallet had something
in it.
At work in the Senate, Diokno quickly established himself as a nationalist and reformer. But
he also pushed to promote Philippine business—on fair terms. The activist-writer Ed Garcia
reports that: “On the floor of the Senate, he did not hesitate to articulate his thoughts on
economic self-reliance and self-determination in the face of the continued stay of foreign
military bases which, he argued, justified foreign intervention in Philippine affairs.
“As lawmaker, he successfully fought the oil companies and masterminded the signing into
law of the Oil Industry Commission Bill. He is the acknowledged ‘father’ of the Board of
Investments and author of the Investment Incentives Act. He also authored Joint Resolution
No. 2, which set the policies for economic development and social progress, and co-
authored the Export Incentives Act and the Revised Election Law, among others. For his
performance as legislator, Pepe Diokno was cited Outstanding Senator by the Free Press for
four successive years beginning 1967.” (Garcia, 57)
Nationalist
Pepe speaking before an audience in the United States
It was typical of Diokno to mince no words in propounding his principles. In a speech before
an American audience in 1968—delivered in a bastion of gentility called the Westchester
Country Club—he launched into a comprehensive and well-measured but clearly critical
speech explaining Philippine economic nationalism. The Philippines, Diokno said, had a
dream: “It is the dream to join the modern world without sacrificing democracy to
dictatorship, as others are doing; not at the expense of the poor—who have paid the price
elsewhere—but of those who reaped the benefits of colonialism and therefore can afford the
MARCELO, Ma. Costa Rica B.
cost of modernization. Philippine nationalism is determined to achieve this dream. It knows it
must restructure the Philippine economy and Philippine society to do so. It knows it will be
difficult and painful. All it asks of your people and your government is your understanding
and, if you deem it worthwhile, your help to make the process faster, less painful.; and if you
do not deem it worthwhile, to leave us alone.
“Let us do it as we believe it must be done, not as you would do it in our place. Let us make
our mistakes, not suffer yours…. With your help or despite your hindrance, Philippine
nationalism will do the job. No one else can.” (Manalang, 102)
“When he finished,” his editor would note, “there was no applause.”
Martial Law
By the early ‘70s the political climate was darkening, and Pepe Diokno was beginning to
sense an alarming shift in the wind, toward authoritarianism. When Marcos suspended the
privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, Diokno resigned from the Nacionalista Party in protest,
and took to the streets with the other members of the Movement of Concerned Citizens for
Civil Liberties (MCCCL). He had cast his lot with the resistance.
And so it happened that when Marcos declared martial law on Sept. 21, 1972, Pepe Diokno
was among those first enemies of the State arrested by the military in the early morning
hours of September 23.
They had just prayed the novena, and the young Dioknos were planning to step out for a
movie with their friends, but their parents forbade them because of the bombings that had
been going on. Just then five or six carloads of armed soldiers arrived to “invite” Sen. Diokno
to join them. They had no warrant, and had cut the Dioknos’ phone line. To avoid any more
trouble for his family, Diokno changed from his pajamas and went with the soldiers to Camp
Crame, accompanied by his young son Mike. He was later moved to Fort Bonifacio, there to
join the likes of Ninoy Aquino, Chino Roces, Teddy Locsin Sr., Voltaire Garcia, Nap Rama,
Jose Mari Velez, and his other comrades in the civil liberties movement. The country had
been plunged into the maw of martial law, realizing his worst expectations.
Solitary confinement
Pepe upon release from the stockades, 1974.
The close-knit Dioknos were devastated by his arrest and imprisonment, especially when he
was transferred, along with Ninoy Aquino, to solitary confinement in Laur, Nueva Ecija. “We
didn’t know where he had gone,” Maris remembers. “One day the military just came and
dropped off his belongings, including his underwear, except his papers, which the military
kept.”
Laur brought together two of the keenest minds of the resistance to the dictatorship: Diokno
and Ninoy Aquino, ten years his junior, equally impassioned but much more voluble. “Ninoy
looked up to Pepe as a kind of older brother,” Maris says. “Ninoy was a raconteur, with lots
of stories. Dad was quiet and enjoyed listening and laughing along.” Unlike Ninoy, Pepe’s
fight with Marcos never had a personal element; he had never had a face-to-face
confrontation with Marcos, and never would.
Page 3
Solitary confinement would both strain and strengthen the spirit of the two men. Nena
Diokno herself was a strong, intelligent woman. “Your mother is really strong and she kept
me going,” Pepe would later tell Maris. Pepe Diokno forbade his family to cry in the presence
of the guards. “Don’t give the military the pleasure of seeing you in pain,” he told his children.
The only exception was his aunt Paz Wilson, the sister of his mother (who had already died
by then), who had virtually raised him. She often cried during her visits. Pepe’s solitary
imprisonment at Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija (with Ninoy in a separate cell) was a
painful moment for the family. Upon seeing their faces as the Diokno family left the visiting
area, Cory Aquino and her children prepared themselves for the worst. It was rare to see the
Dioknos in tears.
The whole family—even Paz, who was in her 90s—had to submit to a strip search when they
came to visit him, and again when they stepped out. The family endured the discomfort and
the humiliation to spend precious time with him.
Release
Back in Fort Bonifacio, they brought him books—in French and Spanish, so no one could
censor them, as they did the English texts; Pepe and Nena also spoke in Spanish, or one of
the children would play the guitar and the rest would sing to drown out their parents’ voices.
The family brought in food; he brought out coffee for Nena. When allowed to spend the day
in his cell, usually on a Sunday, they would lay out a mat on the grass and all lie there, next
to each other. Whenever his roses bloomed he would say his release was nearing; the
children harvested peanuts and weeded his tiny garden.
Once, while he was still in prison, Nena brought him disastrous news: the building that
housed his library on M. H. del Pilar had been burned in a suspicious fire. He had known that
library so well that he could ask for a book and specify from memory which shelf it was on.
Thankfully, unknown to him and with uncanny intuition, Nena had earlier moved most of his
books to the house, where they lay in topsy-turvy heaps—but safely.
On Sept. 11, 1974—Ferdinand Marcos’s 57th birthday, and almost two years since he was
picked up—Pepe Diokno was released from prison. He had never been charged with
anything.
Free Legal Assistance Group
Pepe with Tanny Tañada
Sharpened and toughened by his imprisonment, Diokno plunged, to provide legal help to
political detainees and other martial-law victims—and long before other prominent lawyers
and organizations took up the cause of human rights—he set up the Free Legal Assistance
Group. His concerns soon expanded to other causes and constituencies, including tribal
groups threatened by exploitation and military atrocities, peasants, social workers, and other
activists. He worked with Sister Mariani Dimaranan in Task Force Detainees, which had
been set up by the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines to protect the
rights of martial law victims and to document cases of torture, summary execution, and
disappearances.
MARCELO, Ma. Costa Rica B.
He had no fear of being arrested again, and went around and outside the country to speak
against tyranny and abuse in the Philippines. But his was no message of gloom and doom;
he could see beyond the immediate horizon into a new dawning of freedom. In one of his
most oft-quoted speeches, he said:
“And so law in the land died. I grieve for it but I do not despair over it. I know, with a certainty
no argument can turn, no wind can shake, that from its dust will rise a new and better law:
more just, more human, and more humane. When that will happen, I know not. That it will
happen, I know.” (Manalang, 76)
Against the regime’s reasoning that authoritarianism was needed to spur development, he
argued:
“Development is not just providing people with adequate food, clothing, and shelter; many
prisons do as much. Development is also people deciding what food, clothing, and shelter
are adequate, and how they are to be provided. Authoritarianism does not let people decide;
its basic premise is that people do not know how to decide. So it promotes repression, not
development, repression that prevents meaningful change, and preserves the structure of
power and privilege.” (Manalang, 42)
Conversely, as Ed Garcia observed, “(Diokno) did not confine his defense of human rights
merely to victims of civil and political rights violations but extended his efforts to promote
economic, social, and cultural rights as well.” (Garcia, 66-67)
“Ka Pepe” was often approached for legal help by members of the Communist Party, and he
gave help freely; more than once they asked him to join and even lead them, but he
consistently declined. In a speech before the Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference of the
Philippines in April 1985, he argued forcefully and cogently for the legalization of the
Communist Party, maintaining that “It is unjust to prosecute a person for his political beliefs.”
(Manalang, 53) But he refused to believe in the necessity of armed struggle. “There were not
very many among those who suffered during the long period of martial law who believed that
the dictatorship could be overthrown without resort to arms,” Garcia notes. “What singled
Pepe Diokno out was that he not only believed it was possible to do so but that more than
anything else he worked relentlessly to build an active resistance of citizens that was
necessary to make it happen.” (Garcia, 67)
People Power
To this end, in March 1983, he co-founded KAAKBAY (the Movement for Philippine
Sovereignty and Democracy). It took on issues such as elections, the US military bases, and
other nationalist concerns. As immersed as he had long been in the struggle for human
rights and civil liberties, the assassination of Ninoy Aquino in August 1983 further spurred his
involvement in a broadening network of resistance groups, including the Justice for Aquino,
Justice for All (JAJA) movement, and the Kongreso ng Mamamayang Pilipino (KOMPIL)
When the inevitable happened and EDSA 1 erupted in February 1986, Pepe—ever the
thinking man—was initially doubtful. “He refused to go when this happened in EDSA,” says
Maris. “There was a feeling that this was a military attempt to save their necks and the
people were simply being used to cover that action.”
Even when he later agreed to serve the Aquino government as chairman of the Presidential
Committee on Human Rights and chairman of the government panel in charge of
Page 4
negotiations with rebel forces, he never forgot the need for vigilance, reminding his young woman cradling her husband who had been horribly tortured, he saw not despair but
countrymen that: “Above all, we can strengthen the President by pointing out what she is hope:
doing that is wrong. I think we weaken her if we support everything she does even when we
do not agree with that she is doing. Yes-men are not compatible with democracy. People “As I looked at the couple, I saw in them the face of every Filipino; and I knew then that
expect our President and public officials to make mistakes—but of course, to correct them as martial law could crush our bodies; it could break our minds; but it could not conquer our
soon as they are convinced that they have erred. How can they know they have erred, if we spirit. It may silence our voice and seel our eyes; but it cannot kill our hope nor obliterate our
do not tell them so?” (162) vision. We will struggle on, no matter how long it takes or what it costs, until we establish a
just community of free men and women in our land, deciding together, working and striving
As he had feared, the fairy-tale unity of what Maris (as Dr. Ma. Serena Diokno, the professor together, but also singing and dancing, laughing and living together. That is the ultimate
of history) would describe as “someone who was for agrarian reform sitting next to someone lesson.” (Manalang, 45)
who would refuse to give up their land sitting next to someone who simply wanted US
nuclear weapons and the bases out, next to someone who said we need the Americans”
Defining Jose W. Diokno – by F. Sionil Jose
soon unraveled. These contradictions and tensions tragically exploded in what would be
known as the “Mendiola Massacre” of Jan. 22, 1987, during which 15 peacefully protesting
The truest leaders of a nation are not always anointed by elections or popular acclaim. They
farmers were shot dead by government troops practically at the doorsteps of the Palace. In
do not preen before an adoring populace, or strut in the perfumed corridors of power in fact,
deep disgust and even greater sadness, Jose W. Diokno resigned from his two positions. “It
they stay away from the sharp focus of media, from the rambunctious pulpits of quasi-
was the only time we saw him near tears,” Maris says
religious charlatans. It is in their nature, their sterling character, to work quietly, persistently,
often at their own expense and personal sacrifice or discomfort. And some, as a matter of
Death and legacy
fact, are reduced to penury by their own virtue. What they do is voice the aspirations of the
silenced and the silent, and are the pithy conscience of a people often mired in ignorance
By then—even much earlier—Diokno was facing his own death. In 1984, he had been
and apathy. Apolinario Mabini of the Revolution of 1896 was one crippled, poor, but
diagnosed with lung cancer. He had smoked all his adult life, as did Nena. In October 1986,
enlightened, he provided the ideological underpinning of that revolution, and though thrust
they took him to Manila Doctors Hospital for a blood transfusion; things looked very bleak at
away from the inner councils of the President of the first Republic, Emilio Aguinaldo, he went
that point, and when Maris asked the doctor how much time they had left with him, he told
on to write and speak for the nation that had become an American colony. Jose Wright
her “a matter of days.” But Pepe himself thought otherwise; “I know I’m dying,” he said, “but
Diokno is another the truly marmoreal opponent to the Marcos dictatorship, in a sense
not just yet.” He had the transfusion stopped and asked to be brought home; he didn’t want
stronger than Ninoy Aquino because he never aspired to take over from Marcos. And also
to die in the hospital.
because he stayed home.
He lived for four more months. They had brought him down to lie among his books, which
I first knew Pepe Diokno when I was in the old Manila Times in the 1950s; I had gravitated to
was where he died, in peace and free of pain, at 2:40 am on Feb. 27, 1987. He had just
politicians like him Raul Manglapus, Manny Pelaez, Manny Manahan all of whom
turned 65.
championed agrarian reform. I really got to know him best after my return from Sri Lanka in
1964 and I opened Solidaridad Bookshop late that year. I often saw him in Joaquin Po’s
Disease had ravaged his body, and creeping blindness had stilled his writing, but he was
Popular Bookstore at Doroteo Jose where, in the ‘50s, Manila’s tiny circle of
lucid to the last. The children remember him at his hopeful, fighting, smiling best, dreaming
writers/intellectuals often perused Joaquin’s latest books from the United States and the
of justice on earth, and justice in time. In 1981, in a speech on “The Filipino Concept of
United Kingdom.
Justice,” Jose W. Diokno took that dream in his hands and said:

I was fascinated by Pepe primarily because of what he had done in 1962 the year that I left
“Are these standards impossible to meet? If you mean meet completely and immediately,
for Sri Lanka for a diplomatic posting. As Secretary of Justice in the Macapagal cabinet, he
they are. But only yesterday in world time, it was thought impossible to land on the moon.
prosecuted Harry Stonehill and had the American businessman thrown out of the country.
And not too long ago, Aristotle—one of the wisest of men—justified slavery as natural and
listed torture as a source of evidence. So standards thought too high today may well turn out
Secretary of Justice
to be too low tomorrow. But whether they do so or not is not really important. What Nikos
Kazantsakis said of freedom can be said of justice: the superior virtue is not to receive
Harry Stonehill came to the Philippines with the US Army of Liberation in 1945 and had
justice, it is to fight relentlessly for it—to struggle for justice in time, yet under the aspect of
stayed on like a few of those GIs who saw opportunities in the erstwhile American colony.
eternity.” (Manalang, 31)
He had married into one of the wealthy local families and, with his business savvy, had
started a conglomerate of enterprises pioneering and innovative. It included a ramie
Upon Diokno’s death, President Aquino declared a period of national mourning, and in 2004,
plantation in Mindanao that would have developed into a major textile industry, glass
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo issued an order declaring a national day of
manufacturing, and whatever else. He had allied himself with Filipino industrialists and was
remembrance on his 17th death anniversary. Some lawmakers sponsored a bill to rename
far ahead of so many of them in vision and energy.
Taft Avenue to Diokno Avenue. None of those encomiums resonate more than Pepe
Diokno’s own words and the strength of his faith in a better future. When he observed a

MARCELO, Ma. Costa Rica B. Page 5

But Stonehill was too loudmouthed, even for Filipino politicians who were adept at boasting.
He made it known that he could have any politician in his pocket, and to me personally, he
said that one reason for his success was that he diligently followed the 11th commandment:
Never get caught.
But he did. Jose W. Diokno was his nemesis. Stonehill was banished, the enterprises he
started dismantled and taken over by his lackeys.
Was the ousting of Stonehill evidence of Diokno’s anti-Americanism? In those many years
that I knew Pepe, we had a continuing argument on two issues: his pronounced opposition
to the American presence in the Philippines, and violence as a final option in revolutionary
change.
Many in my generation had opposed the Parity Agreement imposed on us by the Americans
upon the grant of our independence in 1946 that they have equal rights in the exploitation of
our natural resources. And above all, the military bases the huge tracts of land which they
controlled in Clark, Subic and elsewhere.
I had argued that his anti-American stance was politically bad for him because he was a
politician in a country whose population is so pervasively pro-American.
As for violence as an option in a revolution against a tyrannical regime, I had argued that the
state uses “white” violence against its own people when the justice system, which it controls,
does not provide even simple justice to the oppressed. The answer to this intransigence is
“red” violence which the people must exercise.
Nationalist
Pepe was truly a man of the law, of peace. “When you accept violence,” he said, “there is no
way by which you can control it.” While he did not accept violence as such, many of those he
defended in the courts subscribed to this belief.
Diokno’s opposition to the American bases was anchored on nationalist principles. I recall a
lunch with the New Yorker writer, the late Robert Shaplen an old Asia hand and one of
America’s foremost journalists covering the Philippines.
Bob had asked what the root of his opposition to the bases was, why he wanted them out
when countries like Japan a very nationalistic country had them and so did Thailand. So
many countries had defense treaties with the United States.
Diokno said, “We are a young country. We cannot develop without a strong sense of nation.
The very presence of the bases here impedes precisely that feeling. You mention Japan, the
other countries these are mature countries, they do not need to emphasize the importance of
nationalism.”
I was in complete agreement with him. The American bases, the tremendous American
influence in the country inhibited Philippine development because they perpetuated
dependency and the teacher/pupil relationship.
Bob Shaplen understood that. Diokno admired America, so many of the egalitarian qualities
of American society. He sent his children there to study, and when he was finally stricken
with cancer, it was to the United States where he hurried for treatment.
MARCELO, Ma. Costa Rica B.
Diokno’s opposition to the American bases was shared by a vociferous minority. I had
worried about it for the simple reason that it was not productive for any politician to harbor
such sentiments. Even the New People’s Army could have gotten more mass support if it
was not anti-American and pro-Chinese.
But later on, I changed my thinking. The Japanese were paying for the American bases in
their soil. There were American bases in Korea, in Taiwan, and these countries were forging
ahead of us. Verily, the American presence did not obstruct progress. On the contrary, these
countries were able to take advantage of the best market in the world the United States.
Freedom fighter
Pepe was a very good writer and a brilliant speaker in English and Tagalog. Wherever it
was, at the halls of Congress, a small caucus or a massive crowd at a political rally, his
audience listened raptly, attentively for he was no common rabble rouser, spouting big words
and hurling bombas as the rabble would call bombast.
Recounts Chel, his lawyer son, sometime in 1978 or there abouts, Diokno spoke at
Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila. His theme: Marcos and his oppressive regime. The crowd was
huge; it hung on to every word that he uttered, and at the end of his speech, as Chel
observed, had he urged the crowd to march to Malacañang, he was sure that it would have
done so. Was it Lenin who said that “power was in the streets, and all one had to do was
pick it up”?
But after that speech, he asked his sons to go with him for a cup of coffee and Diokno told
them why he had held back his mesmerized listeners: it was the right thing to do.
He was also a very good photographer; this not many knew. I saw his pictures, I saw him
work in the dark room. He had vision, an artist’s clear and observant eye.
I say all these to illustrate the wide arc of his talents. I enjoyed visiting Pepe; for one, his
secretary Perla Castillo is a schoolmate at the elementary school in the old hometown. It
was also at his office were I often met the late Haydee Yorac, one of the stalwarts of the
Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) which Pepe set up. And there was Cookie, his ever-
helpful daughter.
When Marcos declared martial law in September 1972, Pepe was arrested and confined in
solitary in Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija at the same time that Ninoy Aquino was also
jailed there. That month during which he was in solitary, he almost lost his sanity. The
imprisonment was psychologically designed to humiliate and demean him. The tiny room
was bare except for a cot. The window was barred, the door had no knob, and the
fluorescent lamp couldn’t be switched off. He was denied reading and writing materials as
well as material possessions.
He said Marcos was deliberate he released him but he continued to imprison Ninoy because
Marcos knew Diokno was not a real threat to him. He did not aspire for the presidency, he
did not have the political machine that Ninoy had.
People’s lawyer
He could now oppose Marcos in the open and that is what he did. More than this, he
continued to work for the workers and the peasants. There were occasions when I
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accompanied him to the provinces where he went at his own expense to defend the poor in
court trials.
He confided that he intimidated the judges with his presence, a national figure, a political and
legal luminary, on the side of the peasantry. Almost always, he won the court battles with his
presence alone. The peasants adored him.
As with most of those who opposed Marcos, Diokno suffered financially. He had to let go of
his house in Magallanes to transfer to a more modest and accessible house in Quezon City.
But even with his diminished income, he continued his free legal service to the poor.
He was already on his deathbed when I last visited Pepe. Nena, his devoted wife, no longer
permitted visitors, but because she recognized our long friendship, she allowed me to see
him. I almost broke down when I saw him so wan, so emaciated. I did not want to tax his
mind any further but I just couldn’t help myself. That Mendiola tragedy had just transpired;
President Cory had refused to see the farmers asking for agrarian reform; they had
demonstrated and 19 were killed.
“Pepe,” I said, “those who were killed in Mendiola how will they ever get justice? Their fate
argues for revolution.”
He smiled. “Frankie, hindi nag-iba ang isip ko. Once you accept violence, there is no way
you can control it.”
When he died, his body was brought to that church near his house. I went there one morning
and on my way out, I came across them along the sidewalk outside the churchyard,
recognized some the farmers whom Pepe had helped.
I asked, “Why aren’t you there inside close to him?”
One of them said, “We are here because Cory’s security people do not want us inside.”
I was so shocked and angry, as I left them tears burned in my eyes.
On greatness
Achievers become popular, famous, rich even. But greatness? This exalted condition is
reserved for those who have transcended themselves and given themselves sincerely to
others, helped them in their time of need, comforted them in their grief, and lifted them from
the sorry drudgery of this world. Jose W. Diokno was not an ordinary Filipino the way most of
us are with our passports. He was a great Filipino, like all those paragons who make us
proud.
My generation, which survived the Japanese Occupation, Marcos and the gross
incompetence of the Cory and Erap administrations can make infallible judgments on our
history and the decrepit quality of our leadership. History has always tested us the
Revolution of 1896 and the subsequent coming of the American imperialists tested our
grandfathers. The Japanese Occupation did the same to our fathers and my generation was
sorely tried by the Marcos dictatorship. We know now why, alas, we failed.
MARCELO, Ma. Costa Rica B.
We have honored so many political leaders who never deserved to be even on the shortest
of pedestals, men who collaborated with our enemies, men who should be labeled as
prostitutes and traitors.
Jose W. Diokno has yet to be fully recognized for what he has done, for what he stood for. At
long last, there is a street named after him, a stretch of highway not often used, parallel to
Roxas Boulevard; if comparisons are to be made, I would say that Pepe Diokno was greater
than President Roxas although Diokno never achieved the eminence, the high office which
Roxas reached as President of this Republic.
What is greatness in a man? Not all famous people to my mind are great in spite of their
widespread popularity or fame; greatness presumes more than achievement, which makes
an individual famous. Greatness is the essence of a person, the compassion that he exudes,
the moral influence that he holds over people and events.
The young film director Pepe Diokno, who writes for this paper, has already won several
awards for his brilliant work. I would urge him now to do a documentary on his grandfather
and in this documentary, juxtapose Apolinario Mabini in it. It is my belief that Pepe Diokno,
Sr. belongs to the same breed as the Sublime Paralytic. Like Mabini, Pepe Diokno
possessed adamantine integrity; in his fight for the oppressed, he often stood fiercely alone
from among his class of politicians. I am sure that among the very young today are many
who will inherit not just his vision but the guts to fructify that vision.
Developmental Legal Advocacy: Meeting the Challenge of Relevance and
Responsiveness (E. (Leo) D. Battad)
Introduction: Development means the full realization of human rights: the civil and political,
as well as the economic, social and cultural rights. Article 1 of the Declaration on the Right
to Development (DRD)i thus states:
"The individual is by virtue of the right to development entitled to
participate in, contribute to and enjoy economic, social, cultural and
political development in which all human rights and fundamental
freedoms can be fully realized."
The DRD suggests that to facilitate the realization of human rights, development does not
only mean economic development, i.e., the improvement of material conditions but, where
majority of the people do not have control and exercise of power, it also means political
development. This includes "the activation of the broad masses of people into organized
political force, so that the people's struggle for their own interests is the very vehicle for
social development. With the people, thourough their mass organizations, as the medium of
change, development is necessarily a movement for the revolutionary transformation of
society to achieve economic democracy and social equality."ii
The DRD regards human rights as both a condition and objective of development. Its aim is
to respond to "concerns regarding the existence of serious obstacles to development, as well
as to the complete fulfillment of human rights and of peoples."iii
Participation, however, is an important factor in development and the realization of human
rights. In the context of human rights, participation must be "active" and must involve
genuine power. Democratic participation requires conditions that include "a fair distribution
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of economic and social power among all sectors of national society,"iv as well as "genuine
ownership or control of productive resources such as land, financial capital and technology."v
In the context of popular participation, horizontally, the term covers participation in all sectors
of a country's public life and relates to all aspects of social, political, economic and cultural
affairs affecting individuals. Vertically, the concept concerns all stages of the development
process, and in particular, the following major phases:
1. Decision-making concerning development, which implies that those concerned take an
active part in the identification, selection, planning, elaboration, formulation and
adoption of projects;
2. Follow-up and evaluation of development programs;
3. Equitable sharing of the benefits of development.vi
Participation is also an end in itself, which meets a fundamental aspiration of human beings.
Thus, people are "the subject rather than a mere object of the right to development." They
are not merely "resources" to be made healthy, skilled and productive; they have a right not
only to survival and material improvement, but also to some measure of power. vii
It is in this context that Developmental Legal Advocacy (DLA) becomes relevant.
DLA: Its Early Beginnings
In the area of human rights protection and development, the concept of DLA was not born
overnight. Originally articulated by the late Jose W. Diokno, founder of Free Legal
Assistance Group (FLAG), in two seminal papers that he delivered in 1980 and 1981,viii DLA
evolved from the experience of FLAG lawyers during the dark days of martial law.
In those days, all semblance of democracy was destroyed. Its effects were far-reaching. It
abolished Congress, impaired the independence of the judiciary, controlled all
communications; stifled criticism; outlawed strikes, peaceful public meetings; hounded and
harassed lawyers, leaders and organizers of trade unions and of student, peasant and
informal settler organizations; resorted to arbitrary arrests, prolonged detention under
inhuman conditions without charges or trial, torture, disappearances and extrajudicial
killings; substituted military courts for civilian courts.ix Martial law also resorted to forced
evictions of thousands of informal settlers, militarization in the countryside causing
displacements of peasants, rural workers and indigenous peoples. The situation was
propped up with countless martial law presidential decrees, letters of instructions and
general orders that seek to rationalize government's denial of or violations of human rights.
Shaped by their common experience of martial law, Jose W. Diokno and a small group of
lawyers founded FLAG in 1974. The organization "was built on a cornerstone that is difficult
to reject -- 'the right of the people to development.' It aims to secure the development and
empowerment of the poor and the oppressed, who are the majority of this country
(Philippines), so that they may participate more meaningfully in the decisions and policies
that affect their lives."x In rendering services to its clients, partner communities and groups,
however, the FLAG lawyers have come to realize that legal aid alone would not suffice, more
so the legal aid of the traditional type -- called traditional legal aid (TLA).
TLA had a limited value, particularly in the areas of human rights protection and
development. This is so because TLA is actor not structure-oriented. It is simply limited to
rendering free legal services to the poor in their private disputes (e.g. defending common
crimes, child support, and the like), no different from the general "traditional lawyering" that
lawyers do to the private disputes of their more better off clients. This type of legal aid has
its value in vindicating legal rights of private parties. But not all human rights are legal rights.
During the martial law years, and even today, some human rights continue to be denied or
violated by law. Hence, where the law itself denies or violates human rights; where
problems involve public disputes that question state policy or thoureaten social structures,
MARCELO, Ma. Costa Rica B.
TLA can do little. This is because TLA accepts uncritically the basic rightness of the legal
order and of the social system and institutions within which it operates.xi
TLA assumes that the law is just and that injustice results from the frailties of those who
make or enforce the law. As lawyers trained in the legal maxim "dura lex sed lex", legal aid
lawyers see their function simply as upholding the law, not changing the law or society.
Since development is social change, often radical and rapid, TLA is of limited value to
development.xii
To a large extent, TLA is the lawyer's way of giving alms to the poor. Like alms, it provides
temporary relief to the poor and merely redresses particular injustices of the poor, but does
not fundamentally change the structures that generate and sustain injustice. Like alms too,
"it carries within it the germ of dependence that can prevent those it serves from evolving
into self-reliant, inner-directed, creative and responsible persons who think for themselves
and act on their own initiative."xiii
With the realization that TLA has limited value to promoting human rights and development,
FLAG decided to provide another form of legal assistance, which is called DLA. It was not
meant to supplant TLA, but to supplement it, "concentrating on public rather than private
issues, changing instead of merely upholding the law and social structures, particularly the
distribution of power within society."xiv It is an attempt to make legal service more relevant
and responsive in the areas of human rights protection and development, toward a just and
humane social order. Its distinctive feature is that "it represented an attempt to make some
contribution to the development process."xv
DLA is the product of the FLAG lawyers' long experience under martial law, and the lessons
derived from this experience brought the FLAG lawyers these shared beliefs:
1. People, not lawyers, should determine what kind of society they wanted and what
changes were needed to achieve it;
2. These changes were fundamental, not just reforms, and had to be buttressed by law;
and
3. People should organize themselves and work together with others if they were to gain
power enough to make the changes they wanted.xvi
DLA: The Theory
Vision. As starting point, DLA pursues a vision of "just social structures which would
facilitate development towards the full realization of human rights."xvii The excesses of the
martial law regime highlighted the long existing injustices in society and compelled the FLAG
lawyers to confront the injustice resulting from violations of the law, but also from the
violations by the law. It pushed them to question not only the legitimacy of the legal system,
but also the underlying social structures that breed this injustice. Hence, the support for
structural change.xviii
Objective. Derived from a structural perspective on the causes of injustice and an
instrumentalist view of the law, DLA's objective is not merely to enforce the law but, more
importantly, to change the law and the underlying social structures which perpetuate or
sustain injustice and inhibit development. DLA seeks to address the inadequacies of TLA by
focusing on structural change to remedy injustice and the empowerment of the people,
individually or collectively, to effect societal change.xix
To attain DLA's objective towards the creation of just social structures, the empowerment of
the marginalized or disadvantaged sectors is a necessary condition. DLA stresses that the
people themselves must rely on their own efforts to bring about the necessary changes, with
lawyers merely playing a supportive role in effecting such change. This primary reliance on
the efforts of the people, and the lawyer's supportive role, is borne out by the recognition that
"where injustice is perpetrated by the law or by economic and social structures, legal aid can
have a limited, albeit a useful value."xx From FLAG's martial law experience, its lawyers
Page 8
have learned one important lesson: that clients must rely on themselves, not on lawyers, to
realize their vision of a just and humane society, and make that vision come true.xxi This
lesson is one of the most valuable contributions of DLA. As aptly stated by Diokno, "[T]o win
justice, the poor, the dispossessed and the oppressed -- who are the people -- must rely, not
on legal aid, but on their own organized efforts."xxii
Strategy. A two-part strategy is employed in DLA to effect legal and social change
necessary for the promotion of human rights and development. The first part involves
confronting the government with the detrimental effects of its policies on the population and
the discrepancies between rhetoric and international standards on the one hand and reality
on the other hand. This is designed to cast doubt on the government's legitimacy and to
undermine the foreign and domestic support that it may enjoy. The second part involves
helping the marginalized sectors or disadvantaged groups (e.g. informal settlers, peasants,
workers, women, indigenous peoples), communities and groups, and is designed to increase
their awareness of the causes of their problems and help them to organize and act on their
own initiative to resolve their problems.xxiii
While recognizing the possible contributions of DLA to the development process, Diokno
described the role of DLA as "severely circumscribed, a basically supportive function whose
value lies as much in educating people to their legal rights, in awakening them to the causes
of their situation, and in assisting them to organize themselves and act together, as in
helping them vindicate their legal rights."xxiv
DLA: The Practice
In its barest sense, DLA means rendering legal assistance to the marginalized sectors and
other groups and communities, on issues involving public interest, human rights and social
justice, giving primacy to the client's participation in the process of addressing their
problems. Hence, DLA means a lot more than providing legal aid. In furtherance of its two-
part strategy, lawyers engage in litigation, education, advocacy and networking. These
functions are not mutually exclusive of the other functions. They are often done in
combination with the other functions. The extent of lawyers’ involvement in these functions
(including the kinds of cases they handle), however, are largely dictated by their available
resources (both material and human), their level of expertise, the needs of their clients or the
prevailing situation. FLAG, for instance, endeavors to accomplish all functions, when
resources are available. Although it handles various cases involving both civil and political
rights and economic, social and cultural rights, most FLAG lawyers have developed
expertise in handling violations of civil and political rights, noting their long experience in
litigating violations of people’s rights during the dark days of martial rule.
Legal services. While litigation is a traditional tool that most lawyers employ in addressing
legal problems, DLA necessitates a holistic approach at solving them. DLA requires the
lawyer to reorient his/her approach to the provision of legal services, particularly because the
cases involve public interest, human rights or social justice issues.
First, when clients approach a lawyer with their legal problem, the latter engages in a critical
analysis of the problem in order to identify its source or cause of continuance. S/he looks
into the client's difficulties, whether these involve private issues or disputes, or whether these
involve social justice problems or public issues that affect an entire community or the public
in general. Necessarily, the lawyer's perception of the law becomes important. In DLA, the
lawyer views the law with a critical eye, mindful that the law, not merely a misinterpretation of
the law, can perpetuate injustice. Hence, the lawyer is able to distinguish between legality
and legitimacy of the law. This springs from the recognition that while the law will always be
legal, it will not necessarily be legitimate. Following from this is the recognition of the
inadequacies of the law and the legal processes.xxv
In analyzing the problem, the lawyer involves the client. It is critical that if the problem is
vested with public interest or involves human rights or social issues, the lawyer involves the
clients "in seeking to find the specific social cause of the legal problem, the particular social
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structure and social forces that generated them."xxvi The social awareness that this
generates will "evoke the determination on the part of the lawyer and client alike to change
law and society to correct injustice. And that is the beginning of development."xxvii
Second, recognizing the inadequacies of the law and the legal processes, the lawyer informs
the clients of their rights and the limitations of the legal system. This is essential to enable
the clients to avoid being over reliant on the legal system to address their problems and to
motivate them to seek not only legal but also social solutions to their problems.xxviii
Third, the heightened awareness of the causes of the problem, and knowing their rights,
however will not lead to action unless it is coupled with the awareness of the power to act.
Hence, the lawyer encourages the people they serve to organize and act collectively with
others similarly situated to address the problem. Following from this, the lawyer and the
client seek to work out both legal and social solutions to the problem and formulate not
merely a court-oriented approach but also the use of metalegal tactics, where necessary or
appropriate, which might assist in the resolution of the problem.xxix
Metalegal tactics are goal-oriented, concerted actions of the people that go beyond the use
of ordinary court processes, without openly defying existing law, to exert pressure for change
in law and society. These actions are creative tactics that give life to the meaning of the four
freedoms -- freedom of speech and of the press, freedom of expression, and freedom to
peaceably assemble. Metalegal tactics include the use of petitions, hunger strikes, noise or
text barrage, rallies and marches, mass attendance at hearings, wearing of pins and logos,
among others.xxx
The importance of the metalegal tactics is one of the lessons that FLAG lawyers learned in
handling cases of political detainees. These are particularly useful in cases where rights are
either denied by law itself or thourough ineffective enforcement mechanism. The
identification and use of metalegal tactics in handling cases, however, may vary from case to
case depending on the nature of the case, the surrounding circumstances, and the
readiness of the people in employing them. At all times, the lawyer encourages the client to
develop their own creative metalegal tactics that would assist in the resolution of the
problem.xxxi
It is evident that in providing legal service thourough litigation, lawyers would require
considerable interaction with the clients. Where the clients involve groups and communities,
the process of dialogue between lawyer and client would be unwieldy and difficult unless
there is the presence of a relatively organized community and identifiable leaders. DLA,
therefore, recognizes the importance of an organized client community or group in order to
effectively articulate demands, to engage in a dialogue with the lawyer as to the source of
the problem, and to identify solutions and undertake metalegal tactics, when necessary, in
the resolution of the case.xxxii
One aspect that stands out in DLA legal services is the character of relations between
lawyer and client. Unlike in a traditional legal relationship where the clients are dependent
on the lawyer, DLA advocates the establishment of a type of relationship which would foster
a sense of self-reliance within the clients and reduce their dependency on the lawyer; a
relationship where clients are able to think for themselves and act on their own initiatives to
resolve their problems.xxxiii
Thus, in some FLAG cases involving political prisoners or detainees, where the likelihood of
success thourough court processes is nil or slim, metalegal tactics such as rallies or petition-
delegations were resorted to in order to obtain release of prisoners or detainees. Similarly,
in eviction cases of informal settlers, although FLAG lawyers go thourough the usual court
processes, metalegal tactics were given priority, knowing that the property laws in the
Philippines are skewed in favor of property holders. Clients sent petition-delegations to
appropriate housing authorities to demand permanent resettlement sites, or initiated
negotiations with the landowners to explore the possibility of purchasing the land occupied
by informal settlers at a reasonable price and amortization scheme.
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In other cases handled by FLAG lawyers, government policies or actions that were
considered as detrimental to the population were challenged, usually thourough test cases.
There were losses, but victories as well. For instance, in Echegaray vs. Executive
Secretary,xxxiv the constitutionality of the law designating death by lethal injection as a
method of carrying out capital punishment was challenged, but the Supreme Court upheld
the validity of the law.xxxv In Freedom from Death Coalition vs. Energy Regulatory
Commission,xxxvi however, in defense of the right to affordable electricity, the provisional
Order of Energy Regulation Commission authorizing MERALCO to increase its rate was
assailed, and the Supreme Court declared it void as it had grave due process implications
since the ERC failed to consider the opposition and motion already filed on record. Also, in
Tatad vs. Secretary of the Department of Energy,xxxvii the validity of the oil deregulation law,
an aftermath of globalization, and Executive Order No. 392, declaring full deregulation of the
oil industry, were challenged. The Supreme Court upheld the challenge and struck down the
law.xxxviii On the other hand, the constitutionality of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA)
(between the Philippines and the USA) was challenged in Bayan (Bagong Alyansang
Makabayan) vs. Zamora,xxxix but the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the VFA.xl
Education. Another important function of DLA is education. It is integral to all other
functions of lawyers in DLA. Lawyers need to make full use of its educative function if they
are to contribute to development. Education has a central role in heightening social
awareness of the people as regards the rights and the inadequacy of legal processes and/or
social institutions which breed injustice and result in ineffective implementation of these
rights, and in making the people aware of their power to act and take control of their
problems. It facilitates human development by enabling clients or communities to engage in
a critical analysis of their problems, by themselves or with their lawyer, and to develop
strategies to address their problems.xli
Making full use of the lawyer's educative function may be done by publishing policy issues or
legal primers in simplified terms, using the language understood by the people, as well as
providing or conducting paralegal training, seminars or workshops. For instance, the
publication of primersxlii and provision of paralegal trainings or seminars for the marginalized
sectors are one of FLAG's major activities. In this regard, FLAG, together with the National
Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA) of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines
(CBCP), trail blazed the first paralegal training for the marginalized sectors in the
Philippines.xliii Engaging clients in dialogues, undertaking fora or symposia with clients or
communities, or sponsoring legal programs over the radio or television are also valuable
educational activities. Apart from litigation, these educational undertakings help the clients
and other communities to know “not only what their legal rights are, but also what their rights
should be; and equally important, how inadequate existing legal processes and institutions
often are to vindicate these rights, and why they are inadequate.”xliv They too are able to
learn other strategies in addressing their problems. Education, therefore, is important in
empowering the people towards human development.
Education, however, is not a one-way process. In making full use of their educative function,
lawyers also gain knowledge, enrich their perspectives and hone their legal and
communication skills as they interact with their clients and other groups and communities.
The manner in which litigation is conducted (e.g. involving the clients in handling basic legal
tasks such as posting bail and requesting postponements, or raising novel issues,
perspectives or interpretation of the law in the pleadings) could also be a valuable educative
avenue not only for the clients, but for the courts as well. The clients realize the limits of the
legal processes, and are thus encouraged not to be over dependent on litigation to resolve
their problems. On the other hand, litigation affords the judges and justices the opportunity
to be apprised of international and local developments in human rights, and challenges them
to exercise judicial activism in the promotion of human rights. By judicial activism the
judiciary "may, in accordance with its ordinary and available procedures so interpret the acts
of the State that they do not contravene the human rights of the States inhabitants. In other
words, it may refrain from giving effect to legislation and executive acts which contravene
those rights."xlv
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Equally important in education is the promotion of human rights and DLA by initiating law
students and other lawyers to DLA practice. Thourough foreign and local law internship,
human rights training programs, and publication of reference handbooks and materials, law
students and other lawyers are able to acquire the knowledge, skills, experience, attitudes,
and perspective necessary to practice DLA.
Advocacy. Another function of DLA is advocacy. One important aspect of advocacy,
however, is taking positions on policies of the government. Advocacy in this context is in
furtherance of the first part of the DLA strategy -- confronting the government with the
detrimental effects of its policies on the people and the inconsistencies between government
rhetoric, on one hand, and the international standards and reality on the other. The focus of
the lawyer's advocacy is on the organs of state, notably the executive and legislature.xlvi
Illustrative of this function is FLAG’s Congress Watch where lawyers engage in research and
documentation, draft critiques, position papers and legislative bills; lobby members of
Congress; and participate in public and committee hearings, campaigns and fact-finding
missions. These were done, for instance, on such proposed legislation as the Anti-Terrorism
Bills, Death Penalty Bills, and Comprehensive Forensic DNA Law.
Advocacy is also integral to the rendering of legal services thourough litigation and
educational activities. For instance, in legal pleadings, FLAG lawyers perform this function
thourough the effective use of pleadings in the handling of their cases. Consistent with the
lawyer's educative functions, hearings and legal pleadings are venues to challenge
government actions, state policies and laws, and make official stand on certain issues.
Networking. Without networking, the lawyers' effectiveness in performing their functions
would be severely limited. On one level, the clients of lawyers need to cooperate with other
groups, particularly those that are similarly situated, to ensure greater success in addressing
problems that require not only legal but also social solutions. For instance, successful
metalegal tactics, often times require numerical strength, apart from organizational cohesion.
Being in the nature of a pressure tactic, cooperation with other groups is an important
consideration.
Among lawyers, networking is equally important. FLAG lawyers engage in networking with
other non-governmental organizations and people's organizations in order to maximize
resources, to share expertise or to create an effective division of labor. The division of labor
or sharing of expertise, however, is not a rigid one. Hence, the role of the lawyer can go
beyond the purely judicial sphere.xlvii FLAG's Anti-Death Penalty Campaign best illustrates
how networking with the Coalition Against Death Penalty (CADP) and the Samahan ng mga
Pamilya sa Death Row (SPDR) spelled the success of the campaign. The joint effort and
sharing of resources of the partners organizations helped ensure the abolition of the death
penalty in the Philippines in 2006.
Growth of DLA in the Practice of Law
Beginning in the early 1970s, DLA has not only evolved; it has taken root in other legal
organizations that were established in the 1980s. These legal NGOs have formed a
coalition known as the Alternative Legal Group (ALG) Network, which today is composed of
twenty-one organizations thouroughout the Philippines. The legal organizations within the
ALG are engaged in what is invariably referred to as "alternative lawyering", "public interest
lawyering" or "developmental law practice," characterized by non-traditional and creative
legal services (other than the provision of legal aid).
In fine, "alternative lawyering" is best summed up in this wise: "To be alternative,
developmental or feminist lawyer means to view law as an indispensable weave in our social
fabric. It is to practice law, fundamentally for individuals, communities and sectors that have
been historically, culturally and economically marginalized and disenfranchised. It is to
engage in this practice systematically, under the umbrella of sustainable organizations that
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foster dynamic and creative individuals. The mark of such practice is that it seeks not only to
create ripples of public impact from individual cases but also that it empowers in the process.
To be an alternative lawyer means a clear professional commitment that the use of law is not
the sole domain of those that have passed the bar and taken the oath, but could and should
be shared with the individuals, communities and sectors which it affects."xlviii Thus, "[a]n
alternative lawyer does not practice alone. At the very least, their clients, beneficiaries or
partners participate in the process. They do so not only as paralegals but also as peoples
who work to better their conditions. They do so as principal actors in making decisions on
options which have been laid out by the alternative law group."xlix
The ALG organizations have "distinct programs for developmental, alternative, feminist or
strategic and political legal interventions. They are primarily concerned with the public
interest, human rights and social justice. They seek law as a means to empower the
disadvantaged."l Regardless of the differences in the member organizations' programs and
activities, however, these have the following major components: legal services (usually
limited to what they refer as "strategic litigation"), education, research and publication and
policy reform work. These major components of organizational work basically mirror the
DLA functions of legal services, education, advocacy and networking.
Constraints, Difficulties and Challenges in the Age of Globalization
Over the past decades that DLA has evolved in theory and practice, DLA lawyers have met
varying degrees of difficulties and constraints. Then and now, they continue to face death
thoureats, physical and psychological harassment and surveillance from state agents or
armed groups for their involvement in DLA activities. For handling cases and taking up
positions that question state policies or expose human rights violations, they have been
labeled as "pro-communists," "criminal coddlers," "destabilizers," "agitators", to name a few.
Moreover, it is not uncommon for DLA lawyers to work long hours of the night in the office
often with inadequate staff support, to face the physical risks and emotional demands of
dialogues and interactions with the poor communities in near and far-flung communities. For
those in legal NGOs, they and their staff have also to contend with insufficient financial
compensations that put added pressure on what is already a demanding and risk-laden
work, as well as the perennial problem of dwindling resources to implement their programs
and activities.
Further, there is lack of understanding of human rights, not only among the people, but also
among those in the legal profession and the judiciary. Apart from this, there is also the lack
of understanding of the roles of lawyers in DLA practice such that they are vulnerable to
thoureats and harassment of all kinds from armed elements and state agents. For these
reasons, DLA lawyers need to undertake more extensive educational activities to promote
greater understanding of human rights and of the role of lawyers in this advocacy in light of
recent trends and developments in human rights. But how well DLA lawyers could make use
of the information and communications technology that has become a major force for
intensifying the processes of globalization is a challenge they will have to meet as it could
spell a great difference in the way they promote human rights and mainstream DLA as a
theory and practice in the years to come.
Moreover, the imperatives of the times call for judicial and legislative reforms. In these
respects, the participation of DLA lawyers in judicial and legislative reforms thourough
vigorous advocacy and education programs cannot be over-emphasized. For instance,
there is the need to gender-sensitize and upgrade the efficiency of court systems and
procedures (e.g. provision of rape shield rule, post-traumatic stress disorder as proof of fact
of trauma or rape). The need to improve the quality and access to judicial services by the
poor (e.g. physical accessibility, affordability) is also urgently needed. Equally important are
legislative reforms that are gender-sensitive and that provide greater protection to human
rights (e.g. prohibition against labor-only contracting, protection against reprisal in sexual
harassment, removal of gender biases in legislation).
Amidst the constraints, difficulties, and challenges, let it not be said, however, that DLA
practice is not without its reward. For the DLA lawyers also get their share of affirmation
from their clients that what they do, together with them, spells a great difference in their lives
and in society. In the course of their work, DLA lawyers have received so many improvised
certificates of appreciation; handicrafts of political prisoners, women and farmers; art work of
children; and beaded works of indigenous peoples, among many others. These have not
only come to serve as mementos of their experiences, but also as living reminders of the
nobility of their profession. That is to say, they responded and continue to respond to the
challenge of their profession – to be agents or catalysts for social change. Call it "psychic
reward", but a fulfilling reward it is.

In the midst of globalization, the DLA lawyers will continue to face greater constraints and
difficulties, as well as challenges ahead. Whatever is the impact of globalization, particularly
in third world economy, this reality remains: that there will be winners and losers in a
socially engineered event such as globalization. And all countries, communities and peoples
will stand to win for as long as they follow the rule of the game -- global competitiveness.
But since not everyone is ready or has the capacity to compete in the global markets, there
will be the continuous reproduction of inequalities and social injustices.li In the Philippines,
for instance, the phenomenon of flexibilization of work arrangements and the informalization
of workers have risen over the years. This, not to mention the phenomenon of increasing
feminization of migration.

With globalization, the DLA lawyers will have to deal with other human rights issues (e.g.
transnational prostitution, human trafficking, child labor, flexibilization of work that lessened
the capacity of labor unions to organize, etc). They too will have to devise creative means to
help organize and mobilize sectors such as the informal workers, so they may be able to act
collectively in finding solutions to their problems.

DLA lawyers would have to face organizational constraints as well. They have to work
towards sustainable organizations, able to meet the needs of both lawyers and staff in the
light of dwindling resources coming from funding agencies. Creative, viable and dependable
means of cooperation with their client or partner communities or groups need to be worked
out to conserve limited resources.

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