JOSE W. DIOKNO: HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER PAR EXCELLENCE

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

(Author's Note: Millennials hardly know Jose "Ka Pepe" Diokno, a great patriot. This article seeks to introduce Ka Pepe to many young people, who hardly know our history. I have posted this article on FB on the occasion of our Independence Day.)

His admirers and supporters regard the late Joseph W. Diokno as the beacon light in the advocacy of human rights and economic nationalism, and the strong belief in individual freedom.

Diokno, a former senator, justice secretary, nationalist and human rights activist, knew better.

A state that sticks to strict adherence to human rights and justice could always ensure economic development. For democracy is the road to development, said Diokno, who was Ka Pepe to friends and foes alike.

Ka Pepe's adherence to democratic ideals and human rights led him to remark: "I know my people. We will be free. We will develop. We will build our own societies. We will sing our own songs."

Jose W. Diokno was born in the municipality of Taal, Batangas, an enclave town of sturdy and original Spanish villas, on Feb. 26, 1922 to Ramon Diokno, a former senator and Supreme Court justice, and Eleanor Wright, an American, who became a naturalized Filipino.

Showing brilliance at an early age, Diokno graduated valedictorian of high school batch 1937 of De La Salle College (now a university) in the Manila upbeat district of Malate.

Because of his fascination with numbers and machines, Diokno planned to become a mechanical engineer. But he instead enrolled in De La Salle's commerce program, finishing his accounting degree summa cum laude at 17.

Shortly before the war, Diokno topped the examinations for certified public accountants (CPA), but he had to seek special dispensation because he was below the legal age to practice the profession.

Apparently bored to become an accountant, he immediately took up law at the University of Santo Tomas, but the outbreak of World War II interrupted his law studies. While the war raged, Diokno, a bookworm, educated himself by reading his father's law books.

Diokno secured a special permit from the Supreme Court, allowing him to take up the 1944 Bar examinations without a formal law degree. He topped it, making him the first Filipino to top both the CPA board and Bar examinations. Incidentally, Jovito Salonga, his colleague at the Senate, also topped the first Bar Examination; they had the same grade.

Diokno went to practice law. A few years after he became a lawyer, Diokno represented his father, who faced an election case after he joined the progressive lawmakers in their opposition to the Bell Trade Act of 1947.

Diokno made his father win, but his old man assumed the post toward the end of his term in 1949. He built a reputation as an outstanding litigation lawyer, winning several high profile cases, including the dismissal of a libel charge against Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson.

Soon, public service lured him. Although Diokno was a ranking member of the Nacionalista Party, President Diosdado Macapagal named him as his justice secretary, making him one of the youngest members of the Cabinet of the Macapagal administration.

Diokno worked with topnotch state lawyers to prosecute Harry Stonehill, the former US army lieutenant, who came here as part of the US liberation forces, but stayed to build a business empire engaged in tobacco and cigarette production, glass manufacturing, ramie production, among others .

To his horror, Diokno, after a raid of his firm, discovered that Stonehill had built his empire by corrupting top officials, including those at the highest levels of government. The raiders confiscated a notebook, which contained the names of high-ranking public officials, who were on the take.

Diokno had Stonehill deported, but not without a heavy price: his head. Macapagal asked him to resign, prompting him to protest publicly the shabby treatment he had from the Chief Executive.

In 1963, Diokno won as senator under the Nacionalista Party. He was reelected in 1969. As a lawmaker, Diokno gained a reputation for being a hard-nosed nationalist, who authored a number of economic measures, which have stood the test of time.

Diokno was among the political leaders, who sensed the authoritarian tendencies of President Ferdinand Marcos, pushing him to resign from the Nacionalista Party in 1971 to protest the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus.

Diokno led the creation of the Movement of Concerned Citizens for Civil Liberties, which led a series of political rallies against the dictator. He stayed independent, as he refused to join any traditional political party.

Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and he immediately jailed Diokno without any formal charges, and released him nearly two years later with neither any explanation nor justification. He had Benigno Aquino Jr. as his jail mate.

In 1974, both opposition leaders were in solitary confinement in Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija town of Laur. The experience nearly broke their spirits and sanity. Because of the common experience, the Aquino and Diokno families bonded together and became closer.

Recalling those difficulties, daughter Maria Serena, or Maris, said the family endured the many ways Marcos ruined them financially and morally, but the uncertainty of the future was their biggest problem.

She was correct; Diokno's family is huge. Ka Pepe and his equally strong-willed wife Carmen "Nena" Icasiano had ten children to raise and support.

But Maris recalled that the family had solid values ​​to hold them together. She credited her mother for supporting Pepe all the way; She did not blink amid the adversities. Nena never gave way to despair; She was a pillar of strength in the family.

After his release from prison in 1974, Diokno formed the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) composed of volunteer lawyers, who provided pro bono legal services to victims of human rights abuses, the poor, and the downtrodden.

He traveled the country, speaking in various fora on his advocacy of human rights, economic nationalism, and the dismantling of US military bases in the country. He was never afraid of Marcos and his minions, as he did those things without bodyguards.

Son Jose Manuel, or Chel, recalled how he virtually became his father's apprentice at a tender age of 13, when he accompanied him to court trials, did researches, and prepared cases for him.

Chel collated details, interviewed respondents, and brought important details to his father's attention. Ke Pepe did not have any inkling he would become a lawyer. But what distinguished his father from other lawyers was the strength of his conviction, Chel said.

On his father's detention, Chel said he saw his father going out of jail without resentment, telling them not to take his detention against his military jailers. "Do not hold rancor in your heart. It's not their (the military) fault. They were following orders," Ka Pepe was said to have told his children.

"Do not get discouraged. Bilog ang mundo (the world is round)," he said quoting him on a life of adversities.

His father often quoted Karl Llewellyn, who said that a lawyer with technique but without ideals is a menace, while a lawyer with ideals but without technique is a mess. "Indeed, we must put to work upon the technique ideals," Chel quoted as telling him.

Apart from representing many political prisoners in court, Diokno was an active leader, who helped the anti-Marcos political opposition. He participated in the convenors' group that selected Corazon Aquino as the opposition candidate against Marcos in the 1986 "snap" presidential elections.

Diokno was part of the Anti-Bases Coalition that fought for the dismantling of the two US military bases in the country, asserting that their continued presence maintained the country's colonial status.

But less publicly known was his participation in efforts for Bar integration, As a practicing lawyer in the 1950s, Diokno saw the malpractices among law practitioners but he could hardly do anything because he did not have the power.

When he became the justice secretary, he saw the opening for a new advocacy, leading his own colleagues in the legal profession to call for Bar integration to ensure ethical practice and raise the lawyers' legal of professional competence.

Diokno was the first to say that the Supreme Court would have to play a big role for Bar integration. Without the Supreme Court's direct involvement, Bar integration was doomed. 

True enough, the High Court took Diokno's prescriptions to the heart without crediting him because of his decision to break away from Marcos and go independent.

Diokno's contributions for Bar integration were not limited to providing seminal ideas on how it would proceed. He had cast a huge shadow to influence other lawyers in public service to institutionalize Bar integration first in the 1973 Constitution, which Marcos used later for his autocratic rule, and eventually the 1987 Constitution, which embodies the spirit of the country's democracy restored.

Lawyers conceded that without his clarity of thought and strong conviction, Bar integration would not have been a reality. It was Diokno, who had clear ideas on this and he pushed Bar advocacy integration to a higher level. 

Unfortunately, this was an advocacy, which did not appeal to the common people. Its technical nature was a huge barrier to hurdle.

Immediately after the 1986 People Power Revolution, President Corazon Aquino named Diokno as the first chair of the Presidential Commission on Human Rights, the state agency which she formed to run against human rights violators.

She named him as head of the government negotiating panel tasked to talk with the communist led National Democratic Front in 1987. But Diokno resigned the twin posts to protest the January 17, 1987 massacre of 17 farmers in a political rally at the foot of Mendiola Bridge near Malacañang.

The bullheaded Diokno did not live long to witness the fruits of his major advocacy. A chain smoker throughout his life, he developed lung cancer, which took his life a day after he celebrated his 65th birthday on February 26, 1987, leaving behind a legacy in advocacy, which is absolutely difficult to replicate.