Abraham Sarmiento

Sarmiento was in fact appointed by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as a Regent until September 29, 2010. However, U.P. President Emerlinda R. Roman renominated him as a U.P. Regent to President Benigno S. Aquino III and this renomination remained pending even as Sarmiento died in Prague, Czech Republic on October 3, 2010. As of the time of his death, therefore, Sarmiento was still a sitting U.P. Regent in a holdover capacity.

Sarmiento died due to apparent organ failure, while visiting Prague, Czech Republic, was reported in the Philippine media on October 4, 2010.

Since 2002, Sarmiento had served as a member of the Board of Regents of the University of the Philippines. In 2004, he was among the candidates for appointment as President of the University of the Philippines.

During his stint on the Court, Sarmiento held staunch civil libertarian views. In People v. Nazario, 165 SCRA 186, the Court through Sarmiento acknowledged the void for vagueness rule as able to invalidate criminal statutes. In Pita v. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 80806, 5 October 1989, 163 SCRA 386, he wrote for the Court that any restraint on the publication of purportedly obscene materials must satisfy the clear and present danger test. In Salaw v. NLRC, G.R. No. 90786, 27 September 1991, 202 SCRA 7, Sarmiento's opinion for the Court held that the dismissal of an employee in the private sector must be attended with procedural due process, a ruling which has since been reversed by the Court. At the same time, in PASE v. Drilon, G.R. No. L-81958, 30 June 1988, 178 SCRA 362, Sarmiento's opinion for the Court upheld as a valid police power measure, the Philippine government's right to temporarily ban the deployment abroad of Filipino domestics and household workers.

Upon the assumption to the presidency of Corazon Aquino, following the 1986 People Power Revolution, Sarmiento was appointed to the Board of Directors of San Miguel Corporation, which was then under government sequestration. In January 1987, President Aquino appointed Sarmiento as an associate justice of the Philippine Supreme Court. He would serve on the High Court until he reached the compulsory retirement age of 70 in 1991.

After the death of his son, Sarmiento was visibly active in human rights and anti-Marcos groups. He co-founded the National Union for Democracy and Freedom, the Philippine Organization for Human Rights, and the National Union for Liberation. He was among the founders of the United Nationalists Democratic Organizations (UNIDO), and served as its secretary-general from 1981 to 1983. From 1985 to 1987, Sarmiento served as the Chief Legal Counsel and Member of the Governing Council of the Lakas ng Bayan (LABAN). It would be under the auspices of UNIDO and LABAN that Corazon Aquino and Salvador Laurel would form their presidential ticket that challenged Marcos in the 1986 presidential elections. Sarmiento was also a member of the executive committee and National Council of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) from 1985 to 1987.

In 1979, Sarmiento co-authored a book, The Road Back to Democracy, with former Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal and three others. Later that year, he and Manuel Concordia published a book, Ang Demokrasya sa Pilipinas, which led to their arrest on charges of subversion and inciting to sedition. They were later placed under house arrest.

President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in September 1972. During this time, Sarmiento's eldest son, Ditto, was a student at the University of the Philippines. Ditto became the editor-in-chief of the official university newspaper, the Philippine Collegian, and under his leadership, the paper began publishing editorials critical of Marcos and martial law. When Ditto was arrested in 1976, Sarmiento spent months negotiating with government officials to obtain his son's release. Ditto was released after seven months, but died within a year after his health was aggravated by the conditions of his imprisonment.

Sarmiento successfully ran for a seat to the 1971 Constitutional Convention as a delegate from Cavite. He was elected vice-president of the convention, which was tasked with the drafting of a new Constitution.

Upon his admission to the Philippine Bar, Sarmiento entered into private practice. In the 1950s, he formed a law partnership with Senators Gerardo Roxas and Justiniano Montano, maintaining his partnership with Roxas until 1967, when he established the Abraham F. Sarmiento Law Office.

After the war, Sarmiento completed his law studies at the University of the Philippines College of Law. He was a member of the Alpha Phi Beta fraternity. Sarmiento earned his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1949. In that year, he authored a biography on the murdered Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, José Abad Santos, entitled Jose Abad Santos: An Apotheosis.

Abraham F. Sarmiento Sr. (October 8, 1921 – October 3, 2010) was a Filipino jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines from 1987 to 1991. An active figure in the political opposition against the martial law government of President Ferdinand Marcos, he was appointed to the Court by Marcos' successor, President Corazon Aquino.