Jose W.

Diokno and principled

politics
By: Ed Garcia - @inquirerdotnet
05:07 AM February 27, 2018

Jose “Ka Pepe” W. Diokno died on Feb. 27, 1987, a little more than a month after demonstrating
peasants were gunned down on Mendiola, which practically put an end to the peace talks that he was
leading. “Jobs and justice, food and freedom” was the framework he had proposed for the talks; the
peace process was ended in a hail of bullets before he died.

I remember Ka Pepe struggling to contain his tears as we heard about the massacre of peasants on
Mendiola on Jan. 22, which led to his resignation as head of the human rights committee and as the
government’s peace czar. I had come to consult him during the last stages of the campaign to seek the
citizens’ approval of the 1987 Constitution in a referendum then scheduled on Feb. 2. He had devoted
his life to causes that totally consumed him, and he was at the end of his physical powers but there was
still fire and fight in his eyes.
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By his life and example, by his deeds and his words, Ka Pepe defined courage for an entire generation
who lived through the long night of martial law. He embodied the resistance to dictatorship, he upheld
human rights in season and out of season, he led the struggle to oust US military bases from Philippine
shores.

He did so by practicing a brave brand of principled politics, by taking a stand without regard for his
political fortunes or personal safety. He spoke out eloquently and tirelessly in the halls of Congress and
in the streets, throughout the country and abroad.

I remember Ka Pepe soon after his release from the dictator’s prison, where he stood his ground strong
and unbowed. He spoke firmly about the need to resist the excesses of martial law in the town plazas of
the Southern Tagalog and Bicol regions. On one occasion in Sorsogon, he spoke to a crowd surrounded
by soldiers carrying Armalites. He did not blink; nothing seemed to deter or discourage him.

I remember Ka Pepe leading a rally in Davao City’s main plaza in driving rain. It was in that city after
the vast gathering that I first noticed that he would cough incessantly, his booming baritone struggling
to be heard above the din. He was in the first stages of his battle against cancer, and he would not let
that deadly disease deter his crusade.

In the end, Ka Pepe was defined by the crusades he fought. He raged against violations of human
rights; thus, soon after his release from prison he founded FLAG, or the Free Legal Assistance Group.
He did not run away from a fight and consistently argued against the presence of US military bases on
Philippine soil. He never accepted the rationale for Marcos’ martial law and resisted the dictatorship till
the end, without a hint of compromise. He defended the common man in the law courts and in the halls
of the legislature, in the plazas, and in school assemblies. He defended the unjustly persecuted, such as
Fr. Niall O’Brien, an Irish Columban missionary, and his companions. Called the “Negros Nine,”
O’Brien and his companions were set free after Ka Pepe’s brilliant defense scuttled the lies and the lack
of logic in the trumped-up murder charges leveled at them.

He left a singular legacy: He pioneered principled politics, a new way of doing politics that was
honorable and unafraid, bold and brave, giving assurance to those who were advanced in age and
providing inspiration and encouragement to the youth of the land.

Jose W. Diokno defined courage for a generation that resisted martial law in the Marcos era. He defied
the dictatorship that imprisoned him and the designs of the imperial power that supported the dictatorial
regime. Thirty-one years after his death, he lives on in his ideals and his dreams, and his deeply held
belief that it is worth building “a nation for our children.”