Summarize this part of article by an author:
uman rights” was
a word, term,
or discipline
unheard of when
I was in law
school (San Beda,
unless otherwise
stated) in 1959-
§
63.1 first heard
rEg
rk
nan
2
of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights as a pupil in a Makati
Elementary School convocation. I heard little about it, or
none at all, thereafter, in Rizal High School, San Beda and
Harvard Law. In one ear, and out the other.
I came home on December 30, 1970, with my bride,
Dulce (taken back by the Lord on November 8, 2007). The
next month, January, 1971, I joined Ayala, after having been
recruited in the US by the venerable late Joe McMicking
(the Makati visionary, a client of the San Francisco firm I
trained in as
asummer associate in 1968) and by the late
Mario Camacho (who later became Chairman of the San
Beda Board of Trustees, of which I became a member).
The January 1971 morning I signed up with Ayala,
] went down the Ayala Building at the corner of Ayala
Avenue and Paseo de Roxas. I saw Joe or Danny Ong (LL.B.
‘54), who later became BIR Commissioner during President
Corazon C. Aquino’s time. He was on his way to the Bureau
of Internal Revenue in Manila. I hitched a ride. At the
corner of Taft Avenue and Padre Faura, I saw arally. A
leading marcher was Ateneo lawyer Roger Rayala at the
vanguard, later to become NLRC (National Labor Relations
Commission) Chair.
I bade goodbye to Danny; I said I would join my kind
of people. That afternoon, I resigned from Ayala, sans
working a single day. I asked Bobby de la Fuente (LL.B.
‘54) to tell Don Enrique Zobel (EZ) I had changed my mind,
to go where my foolish heart led. Over the turbulent
years, I would occasionally deal with Ayala. A finer, more
professionally helpful group of people I could not find.
Ayala’s open support for redemocratization proved critical
in the end, after Ninoy Aquino was “salvaged” on August
21, 1983. Bea Zobel was a visible valuable presence.
People were mad as hell and would not take it
anymore.
Martial Law saw the emergence of Senator Lorenzo
“Tanny” M. Tanada, Senator Jose W. Diokno, Senator
Jovito R. Salonga, Senator Joker P. Arroyo, Senator
Francisco “Soc” Rodrigo, and a few other prominent
lawyers, later joined by Justice Cecilia Mufioz Palma, in
the resistance movement. “The first thing we do, let’s
kill all the lawyers,” Shakespeare said. Yes, anyone who
would take over would have to get rid of the lawyers.
Thus, the Bard's praise of the members of the profession
as the scourge of tyrants, whose first order of business
should be to kill all the lawyers, oriented to raise the
foolish questions of the day.
Many other top lawyers chose to be, well, prudent.
Ka Tanny et al. led the resistance movement, in asking
questions in a nation seemingly of sheep. Martial Law
made me befriend people I otherwise would not have met,
like the hero, Jimmy Ongpin, who fought the dictator well
before Ninoy Aquino was assassinated. A lawyer litigates
but the risk for one in business is higher.
In 1971, the San Beda Legal Aid Clinic was formed,
with me as its first head. We defended countless student
demonstrators in conflict with the law, and helped the
indigent, which to this day I do, on a much smaller scale,
given my weakened shape after a devastating family
tragedy, a 2007 vehicular incident where I lost my wife,
my voice, my energy, My Everything, discounted by the
arrival of my apo (grandchildren).
Anyway, Martial Law came, on September 23, 1972.
Raul S. Roco, LL.B.'64, a Ninoy Aquino aide, and I spoke
early that morning. I agreed with him that if we would
get arrested, we might as well get arrested together. That
night we slept in the house of a brother-in-law of his, in
Bel-Air, Makati. Kit Tatad read Proclamation No. 1081.
The next morning, we walked over to the house of Mely
Nicolas (of the Hyatt Ten in this millennium).
The night before, I called Uncle Jovy Salonga, who
was in the Senate. Our decision was to resist, resist, resist.
(Uncle because his mother, Lola Dinang, and my Lola Talia,
were first cousins, neighbors, and since my Lola was
barren of milk, my Daddy sucked from the breasts of Lola
Dinang.) In 1975, Uncle wrote a long courageous Message
of Hope, which a number of us signed. Meantime, I was
editing the Rizal Chapter IBP Newsletter, highly critical
of the dictatorship. (In 1978, during the Batasan election,
I edited Malayang Pilipinas. Later, I wrote the MABINI
Newsletter, and wrote for Eggie Apostol’s Mr. & Ms. and
for Mindanaoan Reuben Canoy’s and San Francisco-based
Dick Pascual’s anti-Martial Law papers.)
Just weeks before Martial Law was imposed, Raul and
Sonia Roco, my Dulce and I were in Camp Crame to assist
arrested students. It was the dead of night and Dulce
was eight months pregnant. Rene Andrei, Jr. was born on
October 20, 1972. We nicknamed him Rebo, for Revolution
(Andrei from Russian dissident Sakharov), and our first
daughter, Lara (Montserrat, after Our Lady; April 4, 1974),
was named after Larisa of Dr. Zhivago. Our third Martial
Law baby, Nonoy (September 7, 1976), was named Benedict
(after the saint) Aleksandr (after Solzhenitsyn). I vowed
to them “you were born slaves but you won’t remain so.”
I worked and prayed hard to help liberate them from the
dungeons of our own prudence, apathy and timidity.
Raul Roco's house was raided that morning of
September 23. No agents went to our rented apartment in
1970-A Sandejas, Pasay, so | went home and surfaced, on
information that I was only on some watchlist, at worst.
Raul continued to be in hiding, being on the arrest list.
The day Martial Law was inflicted, I went to San Beda,
where Byron Bocar, LL.B.’68, and Alex Almario, LL.B.’74,
my students, and I spoke about picketing Malacafang.
In remonstrance, under our Bill of Rights. How little
we knew of what would be with us until February 25,
1986. But, from Day One!
resisted. Byron Bocar is now a
member of the Human Rights Compensation Board under
Republic Act No. 10368.
Human rights emerged as a distinct aspect of
the law, in the limited context of detention without
charges, “salvaging”, “disappearances” and torture,
with “subtexts” like Meralco Treatment, Nawasa
Treatment, San Juanico Bridge, etc. which were to enter
our vocabulary. A “safehouse” where an arrestee was
anything but “safe” and “salvaging” was anything but
to be saved in the time of martial misrule (and said to
continue today).
Human rights advocacy meant very little income,
constant danger and the smoke of gunpowder, as it
were, and incessant stress and strain. This meant that
without the loving support and understanding of one’s
spouse, our sustained human rights lawyering would
have been impossible.
Martial Law supporters were not all cruel and unkind.
A few weeks after Martial Law was proclaimed, my first
Martial Law national security case involved ason ofa
military officer who convinced his son to plead guilty and
reform and give the New Society a chance.
Manila Court of First Instance (CFI) Judge Victorino
Savellano presided. I decided to have the youth plead
“guilty” early December 1972.1 asked that sentencing be
between Christmas and New Year (courts were open then
at that time and also, Saturday mornings) when hearts
would be warm and gentle. On hearing the sentence, I
asked that we (the fiscal and I) be permitted to approach
the bench. Granted. “Your Honor,” I sheepishly said, “I
think the penalty is lower than the minimum prescribed
by law.” Judge Savellano groused, “why, will you appeal?”
I considered myself told and shut up. The humane side of
martial misrule.
Martial misrule expanded our vocabulary to include
“salvaging”, etc., words we would have for breakfast for 14
years at EDSA; there we were from 1972 to 1986, where a
few, then millions, joined us for four days from February
22 to 25, 1986, including the key players who were on the
wrong side of EDSA for more than a decade. They heroically
joined the People whose Power, not Military, ended the
dictatorship. I was privileged to be Present at the Creation.
Immediately, President Cory created the Committee
on the Immediate Release of Detainees, headed by
Uncle Jovy, with Executive Secretary Joker Arroyo,
Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, AFP Chief of Staff
Fidel V. Ramos, and me as members. For years, we had
been crying PALAYAIN ANG LAHAT NA BILANGGONG
PULITIKAL! (Release All Political Detainees!) The
Committee met twice in Club Filipino and once in Camp
Aguinaldo. JPE (Juan Ponce Enrile) was strongly opposed,
FVR (Fidel V. Ramos) was taciturn, and we proceeded to
carry out our campaign promise. The wedge between
the military, led by Reform the Armed Forces Movement
(RAM) and Malacafiang began, or widened. A very
short honeymoon and RAM started a series of failed
coups, some very bloody. RAM was also blamed for the
extrajudicial killing of Lean Alejandro, Rolando Olalia and
many others.
One such coup, I was told was, aborted on January
23, 1986, following the January 22 Mendiola Massacre,
when Ka Jimmy Tadeo, leading the march, did not stop for
the usual dialogue and immediately breached the police
barrier. Firing began and to date, it has not been settled
whether it commenced at the back of the marchers,
thanks to agents provocateurs. There was firing from
the ranks of the police, there to protect Malacafiang and
therefore, us. We were shocked to see the mayhem on TV
in the Guest House. There was weeping.
Suits were filed against government but no case
got anywhere. In the late 1990s, Cory retained me as
her lawyer when sued in Quezon City. Her cousin, Ding
Tanjuatco, Mel Santamaria and I had the case dismissed by
Judge Percival Lopez.
Raissa’s magnum opus cites certain of the worst cases
of Martial Law human rights abuses. When I attended one
hearing of the Hawaii Class Suit filed by Bob Swift & Co., I
was Startled to hear the Honolulu jury award $1.2 billion
just as one form of damages (total was close to $2 billion).
In one serious case, a nail was driven to the skull of one
victim but he lived to tell his tale! Another case, separate,
was about Imee Marcos’ being irritated by a question
posed by Archimedes Trajano in Mapua. She indicated
“who would rid me of this troublesome stude?” and the
sikyus (security) got the message; Trajano was found very
very dead hours later. I helped Bob in that case and met
Trajano’s kin in Honolulu in 1994.
Earlier than the human rights class suit was the
Domingo Viernes case in Seattle, in which a jury awarded
millions of dollars to the heirs of labor leaders Silme
Domingo and Gene Viernes, salvaged during the Marcos
administration (June 1, 1981). | went to Seattle, where |
met Judge Barbara Rothstein. We met again in Shangri-
la Makati in December 2004. Justice Secretary Sedfrey
Ordonez and I had provided the lawyers of the plaintiffs
documents to nail the Marcoses, which also proved useful
to Bob Swift & Co. in Hawaii.
“Human rights” was a word or discipline unheard of
when we were in law school in the 1960s. Like I said, I first
heard of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a
pupil in the Makati Elementary. I heard little about it, or
none at all, in Rizal High, San Beda and Harvard Law. Now
it is the flavor of the period in a changed world, moving
from savagery to decay, without staying long in civilization,
unless we give more importance to human rights.
“Human rights” is a universal concept, which was why
we won in Seattle and Hawaii against the Marcoses, ruled
as kleptocrats by our Supreme Court on July 15, 2003.
Where I was a Happy Warrior, I am now a Happy
Peacemaker, reduced to reminiscing on the might-
have-beens.
I might have been just another lawyer but thanks
to Marcos and his kleptocracy and gross human rights
violations, I became more than a household word only
in my own household. The people elected me Senator
in 1987 without my having to spend a single centavo of
my own. The Pinoy could be appreciative and grateful.
The bourgeoisie may be small but the masa voted me No.
2 Senator in Metro Manila in 1987 (behind only my pal,
Orly Mercado).
Martial Law also enabled me to meet people I would
otherwise not have met, like Jimmy V. Ongpin and Ting
Paterno. Or the father of Raissa, Joe Espinosa, a lawyer
who defended Dr. Salvador Roxas-Gonzalez in the We
Forum trial, which saw me cited for contempt twice,
fined the first time, with the second landing me in jail for
calling Mr. Marcos a “super-subversive”. Now we can call
President (Benigno III) Aquino anything as part of free
speech we restored in 1986. (Fined P50, I pulled a hundred-
peso bill and said, “I'll gladly pay it Your Honor, can I say
something more for another P50?”)
Soc Rodrigo, also in the We Forum defense panel,
was the lawyer of Trining Herrera, who I would meet
after evening class in San Beda, pre-Martial Law, when I
would drive to Tondo (with my student, Antonio Rosales,
the younger, who was to become a Judge, and MABINI
member, along with another Tony Rosales, the elder). In
her torture case, Senator Soc was her lawyer.
It was in Tondo where I met Associated Press (AP)
correspondent Arnold Zeitlin and heard Trining, in 1973,
post-Martial Law imposition, denouncing the abuses
committed “ng umiiral at walang habag na batas militar”
(by the prevailing, unjust, and merciless rule). Words
which still ring in my ears.
In 1974, Eman Lacaba bade goodbye to me in my
Quiapo office and went “abroad”, his euphemism for
underground. He was killed in Davao in 1976, buried ina
shallow grave, and re-buried in Pateros, where brother
Pete read Eman’s “Kung Ako’y Mamamatay’” (If I Should
Die) poem. Eman, | first saw, in 1971, bloodied, sprawled
on the ground, in Pasig, assisting striking workers. Pasig
Municipal Judge Benjamin Abalos dismissed the case
against Eman. Nick Joaquin agreed to be named National
Artist on condition that tortured Pete Lacaba be released.
As a human rights teacher, I never forget what Henry
Brooks Adams said: “A teacher affects eternity.” Raissa,
thank you, for rigorously researching and teaching us
what to teach the young who did not have to go through
the pain, ordeal and terror of Martial Law. Or the
xii
kleptocracy, as Marcos (William Saunders) and Imelda
(Jane Ryan) opened their secret Swiss bank accounts in
1968. This volume will help us recall and remember, for
Santayana warned that those who do not remember the
past are condemned to repeat it.
Shortly after Senator Pepe Diokno was released
from detention in 1974, he founded the Free Legal
Assistance Group (FLAG). He was among those arrested
on September 23, 1972, detained for two years, without
being charged. FLAG | joined. Aside from traditional
lawyering some of us thought we should also take a
stand on national issues. Thus was born the Movement
of Attorneys for Brotherhood, Integrity & Nationalism,
Inc. (MABINI). We talked human rights then, not politics,
but MABINI has produced at least five Senators (Joker
P. Arroyo, Tito Guingona, Joey Lina, Bobby Tafnada and
me; Nene Pimentel was our MABINI client with whom
we worked), a number of Cabinet Members (Augusto
“Bobbit” Sanchez, Fulgencio “Jun” Factoran, Jr., Mariano
“Dodo” Sarmiento, et al.; Bobbit was cheated out of a
Senate seat by a nuisance bet also surnamed Sanchez),
many Congressmen and Mayors. We had an original
member sworn in as Vice President, “Jojobama” Binay,
following an election that Commissioner Rene Sarmiento,
AB ‘75, helped to make credible. He was an original
member of MABINI — in fact he was a founding member
— and had trained with Ka Pepe Diokno. Rene served in
the 1986 Constitutional Commission — where Felicitas
“Fely” Aquino of MABINI and future wife of Joker, also
served — and the Commission on Elections.
At Harvard Law, students got to read about a great
Filipino Senator-Lawyer from Batangas, thusly:
It is pertinent to recall the wise words of Jose
Diokno in rejecting what he termed “currently
fashionable justifications for authoritarianism in
Asian developing countries.” One [justification]
is that Asian societies are authoritarian and
paternalistic; that Asia’s hungry masses are too
concerned with providing their families with
food, clothing, and shelter, to concern themselves
with civil liberties and political freedoms; that
the Asian conception of freedom differs from
that of the West; that, in short, Asians are not
fit for human rights. [... This] is racist nonsense
.... Authoritarianism promotes repression,
not development — repression that prevents
meaningful change and preserves the structures
of power and privilege. ...H. Steiner and D. Vagst,
Transnational Legal Transactions 445-46 (1986).
Justice Claro M. Recto used the term “human rights”
in 1936; that, to me, was the first recorded use of the
term in local jurisprudence. He is very much a part of our
tradition in the great lawyer interpretation of history. In
an easement case, he said:
The evidence discloses that this passage-way
across the Hacienda “Begojfia” is the same one
frequented by carabaos....
Plaintiff intends not
only to prohibit the defendants from using the
road in question, but also from crossing the lands
of the Hacienda “Begofia”, also belonging to the
plaintiff, where carabaos are allowed to roam. An
act so shocking to the conscience, one is reminded,
could only have been perpetrated during the feudal
period when human rights were unmercifully
sacrificed to property rights. North Negros Sugar
Co. v. Hidalgo, 63 Phil. 644, 667 (1936).
One October weekend, Harvard Law School marked
the 20th anniversary of its Human Rights Program. An
article on it said:
Human rights have come a long way since the
Code of Hammurabi, written some 4,000 years
ago, decreed that people accused of wrongdoing be
thrown into a river. “If the river prove that he is
not guilty, and he escape unhurt,” it reads, “then he
who brought the accusation shall be put to death.”
Given the growth of the human rights
movement in this century, it may seem surprising
that, until the mid-1980s, major universities did not
offer programs in human rights. “It’s a very young
movement in its universal institutional form,” said
Professor Henry Steiner ‘55, founding director
of Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program.
“Since the 1970s, when President Carter made
human rights an important plank in U.S. actions
toward the world, it has become more and more
prominent and taken on a more formally legal form.
...” Harvard Law Today, December 2004, p. 1.
What Harvard started preaching three decades ago,
some local lawyers started practicing a decade before
then, as Martial Law provided a ghastly laboratory.
In 1985, RAM (Reform the Armed Forces Movement),
through Colonel Joe Almonte and Colonel Eugene Ocampo,
invited me and a few others to Camp Aguinaldo. In veiled
language, they, with Gringo Honasan, et al., intimated
their plan to take out Marcos. Our company, on our side,
was polite, save skeptical Ninez Cacho-Olivares and me,
maybe the meanest and baddest of the lot, firing questions
indicating our skepticism.
Again, as a teacher, I never forget what Henry Brooks
Adams said: “A teacher affects eternity.” If we affect the
temporal, not the eternal, that is reward enough, for
human rights violations remain widespread today.
Bongbong Marcos asks, what human rights violations
during my parents’ watch?
This edifying volume answers the foolish question.
Learn more about the terror of 1972-86 from this
magnum opus. Raissa, write on. Reader, read on, this
excellent deposition for history.