INTRODUCING JOSE MANUEL I. DIOKNO, LAWYER OF SEN. LEILA DE LIMA

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

Jose Manuel Diokno, lawyer of embattled Sen. Leila de Lelima,  was thirteen years old when he started joining his father Jose, the illustrious lawmaker, human rights advocate, and nationalist, in court hearings of the latter’s clients, mostly political activists and poor citizens.

Jose Manuel, or Chel, sat at the back of his father, watching the courtroom drama and listening to vigorous exchanges of arguments among litigating lawyers, or absorbing depressing testimonies from respondents.

Chel Diokno did not see the world winking at him as a pubescent kid. On the contrary, he saw a world of oppression and destitution. This education in his formative years proved pivotal in his career choice.

It did not take long for Chel Diokno to help his father in the latter’s law practice, mainly for pro bono clients.

Soon, the pubescent paralegal visited various jails, conducted interviews with jailed clients and witnesses, prepared and wrote their testimonies as background materials, and helped his father in building up cases for them.

Even his father was surprised on his extraordinary enthusiasm.

No, the former senator never thought Chel would become a lawyer someday. Neither did he encourage the kid to take up law. Nor did he give any financial reward for his self starting kid.

This happened at the height of the repressive martial law, or soon after the dictator Ferdinand Marcos released his father from nearly two years of imprisonment.

That was the time, when the nation was silenced into submission by the spate of arrests and detention of the dictator’s political enemies, whom the autocrat collectively labelled as “enemies of the State.”

After completing his undergraduate course at the University of the Philippines, Chel Diokno entered the UP College of Law with the resolve to follow his father’s footsteps to become not just an ordinary lawyer, but a human rights lawyer too.

He was already in law school, when the 1983 assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. shook the world for its noontime drama and naked display of power.

Apprehensive that his son would be involved in the unmitigated political dynamics of those days, Ka Pepe sent Chel to the United States to finish his law degree there.

He did it at the Northern Illinois University. Soon, he passed the U.S. Bar examinations. He returned to the country after the fateful 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution that toppled the oppressive Marcos dictatorship.

Chel Diokno passed the Bar examinations here and attended to his father, whose health was already failing during those days.

Despite completing his law degree in the U.S., Chel said he passed the local Bar examinations because the two countries have basically the same legal principles.

After his father’s death in 1987, Chel took over his father’s law office and did litigation works, mostly human rights cases.

While Chel appears low key compared to his outspoken father, who never hesitated to speak out his mind on every burning issue of the day, he does not lack the intensity or the passion to push for his human rights agenda.

Soon, he is deep into human rights, an advocacy which he feels proud to inherit from his father.

De La Salle University, of which Ka Pepe was one of its outstanding alumni, offered Chel Diokno to become the founding dean of its law school in 2010.

According to Chel, the De La Salle brothers urged him to form a law school with a strong foundation on human rights. It was an offer which was difficult to refuse.

Under his leadership as its founding law dean, the law school has come out with a curriculum that seeks to develop the litigation skills of prospective lawyers.

Veering away from the other law schools’ emphasis on book knowledge, the new law school seeks to develop legal writing skills among their students.

Also, their students, upon reaching third year, have to provide mandatory legal aid services to poor litigants. This is part of their on-the-job training, Chel said.

DLSU is the first law school to do it. Moreover, DLSU law students can choose to major in any of the three areas: human rights law, corporation law; and environmental law.

Chel Diokno said he accepted the post of a law dean, when the DLSU brothers had assured him a free hand to develop its law curriculum.

In fact, they told him they wanted a law school deeply oriented in human rights. He said he has specific instructions to develop a law school with a strong sense of values and ethics.

It has been a challenge, which, like a typical passionate yet compassionate Chel Diokno, would never run away.