Jose W. Diokno

In 2017, the CHR erected a nine foot statue of Diokno at the center of the CHR compound entrance in Diliman, Quezon City, and the surrounding park was named Liwasang Diokno or the Diokno Freedom Park. The hall inside the compound is called Bulwagang Diokno or the Diokno Hall and features a bust and an accompanying mural of the late chairman.

Sen. Diokno's grandson and Chel's firstborn child, Jose Lorenzo "Pepe" Diokno is the executive director of alternative education group Rock Ed Philippines. He is best known as a motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter whose debut film, "Engkwentro" won the Venice Film Festival’s Lion of the Future Award in 2009, as well as Venice’s Orizzonti Prize, the NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film, and the Gawad Urian for Best Editing. Pepe used commercials and short films to market his father Chel during his election campaigns. Pepe Diokno is also the director of fastfood commercials that have gained popularity among millennial netizens.

In 2007, by virtue of Republic Act No. 9468, Bay Boulevard, a 4.38 kilometer road along the Bay City coastline, or Pasay and Parañaque City was renamed J.W. Diokno Boulevard in his honor and memory.

Among his works are Diokno on Trial: Techniques and Ideals of the Filipino Lawyer - the Complete Guide to Handling a Case in Court, which was compiled and posthumously published by the Diokno Law Center in 2007. A Nation for Our Children, a collection of Jose W. Diokno’s essays and speeches on human rights, nationalism, and Philippine sovereignty, was published in 1987 by the Diokno Foundation. The collection is named after Diokno's popular speech, in which he says,

In 2005, the De La Salle Professional Schools, Inc. Graduate School of Business (DLS-PSI-GSB) handed out the inaugural "Ka Pepe Diokno Award" as a champion of human rights. This was established along with another milestone, the establishment of the Jose W. Diokno Distinguished Professorial Chair in Business Law and Human Rights. The first ever Ka Pepe Diokno award as a Champion of Human Rights was given to Voltaire Y. Rosales, Executive Judge of Tanauan, Batangas for his effort in protecting the downtrodden, even giving up his life for the cause. Subsequent annual awards have been given to worthy candidates such as Maria Ressa and Bishop Pablo Virgilio "Ambo " David, who in life or death, fulfilled the values of protecting human rights just as Senator Diokno did.

In 2004, Diokno was posthumously conferred the Order of Lakandula with the rank of Supremo—the Philippines' highest honor. February 27, a day after his birthday, is celebrated in the Philippines as Jose W. Diokno Day.

In 2004, Diokno was posthumously conferred the Order of Lakandula with the rank of Supremo—the Philippines' highest honor, which was signed by former Pres. Diosdado Macapagal's daughter, the 14th president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. He was the first recipient of this honor. By virtue of a presidential proclamation signed by Gloria Arroyo, February 27 is perennially celebrated in the country as Jose W. Diokno Day.

Following Diokno's passing, President Cory Aquino declared March 2–12, 1987 as a period of national mourning, with flags flown at half-staff. Expressing her grief, Aquino said, "Pepe braved the Marcos dictatorship with a dignified and eloquent courage our country will long remember." She quoted what her husband Ninoy would often tell his friends that Diokno was "the one man he would unquestioningly follow to the ends of the earth", and that he was "the most brilliant Filipino". As part of KAAKBAY's group of intellectuals, UP Professor Randy David admired Diokno and called him the "best president we did not have", while London's Amnesty International called him the "champion of justice and human rights in Asia". Diokno became famous in the United Kingdom after creating a martial law documentary called "To Sing Our Own Song" with the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1982. Out of frustration, Marcos subpoenaed Diokno and interviewee Cardinal Sin to testify before the Supreme Court regarding their roles in the documentary and connection with another involved human rights hero named Horacio Morales, who used the documentary as trial evidence against the military. Marcos even threatened the British embassy and gave them an order to cancel the documentary, which the British decidedly ignored.

Eventually public outcries after the election results came out with Marcos winning led to the 1986 People Power Revolution that peacefully ousted the Marcos family out of the country. Diokno was appointed by the new President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino or Cory, wife of the slain Ninoy Aquino and mother of the future 15th president, Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, to serve as founding chairman of the Presidential Committee on Human Rights, now the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), and tasked to lead a government panel to negotiate for the return of rebel forces to the government folds. Diokno helped write the 1987 Constitution, particularly Article XIII defining social justice and human rights. Diokno was also the principal negotiator in peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the main leftist coalition founded during martial law.

In May 1984, even before People Power and its preceding, rigged Batasan Elections, Diokno had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He obtained a high fever and was brought to the Stanford University Medical Center where he learned of his disease. He had smoked all his adult life. Diokno visited the San Francisco University Hospital to have a brain scan and found a brain tumor. He would return to the motherland and on July 4, 1986, which was the U.S. independence day, had a series of debates with Minister Enrile, convincing him that U.S. bases should be removed from the country. Enrile, who betrayed Marcos and joined the new administration, was inspired by this debate and would later become senator and help vote to oust the American military from the country. Diokno returned to the United States on September 3, 1986 for treatment. Eventually after having a transfusion a month later at Manila Doctors Hospital, Diokno decided to stop all treatments and return to his home in Quezon City, to spend his final days reading and writing cases after he shaved his hair off and had experienced a declining line of vision. He continued to work all out for four more months, despite his illness, until his passing on Feb. 27, 1987 at 2:40 a.m.—one day after his 65th birthday. Diokno had spent the last decade of his life making documentaries and speeches, and leading different coalitions and rallies on the streets. His funeral was held at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Quezon City.

From January 7 to January 8, 1984, 2,300 delegates representing all sectors gathered at the KOMPIL congress to vote on multiple issues. One of the decisions voted by 60% of the attendees was to establish a new Commission on Elections (COMELEC). Elected leaders included statesmen such as Diokno, Lorenzo Tañada, Aquilino Pimentel, Cecilia Muñoz-Palma, Ambrosio Padilla, Salvador Laurel, and Jovito Salonga. Others came from non-political sectors, including Makati's Enrique Zobel, who was related to Andy Soriano and due to consanguinity was part of the Ayala Corporation. Another leader was Jaime Cardinal Sin, who would play an important role two years later for the opposition. Of all the issues, the largest was concerning a letter they made called the Call for Meaningful Elections (CAMEL). Some including Diokno and Aquino's brother Butz preferred to boycott any election to avoid legitimizing the Marcos rule. On the other hand, some of the other signatories preferred to participate in the elections, including Ninoy Aquino's widow, Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino.

A year later, in 1975, Diokno was chosen as chairman of the Civil Liberties Union, a position he held until 1982. Later in March 1983, Diokno founded the Kilusan sa Kapangyarihan at Karapatan ng Bayan (Movement for People's Sovereignty and Democracy) Organization or KAAKBAY, which was ideologically independent of beliefs like Marxism but was joined by fellow Marxists and Capitalists. KAAKBAY influenced the public and fought hard against the Marcos administration using non-violent activism or "pressure politics". KAAKBAY later elevated pressure politics as an important principle for post-democracy through its publication called "The Plaridel Papers". The August 1984 edition of The Plaridel Papers popularized the concept of pressure politics and introduced a political system that would involve the "parliament-of-the-streets" in building a "popular democracy". KAAKBAY was also one of the main member organizations of the Justice for Aquino, Justice for All (JAJA) coalition, which was founded by Diokno on August 25, 1983 following Ninoy Aquino's assassination for returning to the country to face Marcos. JAJA was the first united front against Marcos, but it did not last long. KAAKBAY served as the main coalition that kept the other extreme groups from leaving JAJA. Unfortunately, JAJA was later replaced by the predominantly leftist Coalition of Organizations for the Restoration of Democracy (CORD) in mid-1984, which had almost the same members. Before the creation of CORD, many former JAJA members who disagreed with the communists also organized a much wider alliance called the Kongreso ng Mamamayang Pilipino (KOMPIL) or the Congress of the Filipino People, and was mainly headed by Diokno.

Diokno also held an important role in Southeast Asia leading a group of senior human rights lawyers from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines in forming the Regional Council on Human Rights in Asia. The group was one of the first non-governmental organizations (NGOs) built to promote human rights in Southeast Asia. On December 9, 1983 in Manila, the Regional Council formalized the first human rights declaration of Southeast Asia called the Declaration of the Basic Duties of ASEAN Peoples and Governments. Although the council paved the way for future human rights declarations by other organizations like the United Nations, their momentum gradually declined decades after the Marcos regime ended. Diokno was also, inter alia, the chairman of the first Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems, International (HURIDOCS) assembly in Strasbourg, France, which was a historic event that involved over two hundred representatives. HURIDOCS founder Hans Thoolen said years later in a tribute to Diokno that he witnessed Diokno present novel ideas on practical ways to defend human rights victims at the 1983 SOS-Torture constituent assembly held in Geneva, Switzerland, and that Diokno frequently disseminated human rights primers published in the common vernacular for mass audiences.

Diokno's nationalist legacy made further headlines when on February 12, 1983, former Supreme Court Justice J.B.L. Reyes, UP President Salvador P. Lopez, and former senators Tañada and Diokno formed the Anti-Bases Coalition (ABC), with Diokno voted as the secretary general or the chairman of the coalition. The influence of the ABC eventually led to the end of American military presence in the Philippines, notably in Subic Bay and Clark, Pampanga. The historic turnover ceremony transpired on November 24, 1992 under then-Philippine President Fidel Ramos.

Diokno spent 718 days, or nearly two years in detention, mainly at the maximum security compound of Fort Bonifacio. While Aquino was charged with subversion, no charge was ever filed against Diokno. Diokno was released arbitrarily on September 11, 1974—Marcos's 57th birthday. After his release, Sen. Diokno mentioned in an interview with videographer Andrew Pearson that he served as an instructor teaching law courses at the University of the Philippines (UP) at their request after he was released from Fort Bonifacio. This continued until Marcos found out and had him banned, though Diokno continued returning for speeches and conferences, and was later honored with a mural of him and other martial law heroes at the school's main college of Palma Hall.

Immediately after his release, Diokno set up the Free Legal Assistance Group or FLAG in 1974, which gave free legal services to the victims of martial law. It was the first and largest association of human rights attorneys ever assembled in the nation. In court, Diokno personally defended tribal groups, peasants, social workers threatened by exploitation, and military atrocities, which he represented pro-bono. FLAG popularized developmental legal aid and even doled out allowances to its clients. This has led to new laws requiring newly sworn in lawyers to provide free legal assistance for a certain amount of time. FLAG handled 90 percent of human rights cases in the country as well as built programs to educate citizens about human rights. Diokno was also involved in documenting cases of torture, summary execution, and disappearances under the Marcos regime.

He was the leader of the Movement of Concerned Citizens for Civil Liberties (MCCCL), which organized a series of rallies from 1971 to 1972. The most massive of these rallies involved 50,000 protestors and was held on 21 September 1972, shortly before the imposition of martial law by the Marcos dictatorship. During this rally, protestors denounced the infamous Oplan Sagittarius, the devious operation plan by Marcos to declare martial law. Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino exposed the Oplan Sagittarius scandal earlier in a September 13 speech, and spoke to the Senate on September 21, the same day that the MCCCL held their exceptionally large rally at Plaza Miranda. Marcos reacted with fear of deposition and immediately finalized Proclamation No. 1081, which declared nationwide martial law at 8:00 p.m. later that evening. Exactly the next day on September 22, 1972 at 8:00 p.m., Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile was told to exit his car near Wack-Wack village. Another vehicle carrying gunmen arrived and stopped near an electrical post, right beside Enrile's vehicle. They then alighted from their vehicle and began to fire at the large sedan of Enrile to give an impression of a terrorist ambush, setting the stage for Marcos's theatrical television announcement.

On September 23, 1972, Diokno's second term as senator was officially cut short when Marcos announced martial law on television at 7:17 p.m.

Previously, Marcos began building notoriety following the Jabidah massacre, where an estimated 14 to as much as 68 alleged Muslim youths were gunned down in Corregidor by unknown armed men in 1968. Following this event, a Moro insurgency would quickly develop, starting in Mindanao; it would evolve into a widespread armed-conflict that would engulf the nation decades after Marcos's lifetime. Marcos tried to suppress the media and block coverage of the event, but it was too late. Diokno and many other senators sensed Marcos might have developed a hidden agenda. From then on, Diokno began to put greater emphasis on human rights in public speeches and events. In an oft-quoted 1981 speech, he would declare, "No cause is more worthy than the cause of human rights. Human rights are more than legal concepts: they are the essence of man. They are what make man human. That is why they are called human rights: deny them and you deny man's humanity."

For his performance as legislator and fight for nationalism, Diokno was named Outstanding Senator by the Philippines Free Press from 1967 to 1970, making him the only legislator to receive the recognition for four successive years. Diokno also served as the delegate for many commissions including the United Nations General Assembly in the middle of the 1960s.

Diokno is generally seen as the intellectual leader contrasted to the fierceness of Ninoy Aquino in opposing the perversion of the Marcos Administration. He managed to have the ability to lead rival political factions together. As senator, Diokno had a strong relationship with technocrats such as Cesar E.A. Virata, Placido Mapa Jr., and Vicente Paterno, all of whom joined Marcos's administration during martial law. According to these economists and technocrats, Diokno did not carry preconceived notions of others provided that nationalist goals could be met. His willingness to work with people of contrasting ideologies allowed him to adopt the Investment Incentives Act of 1967. Diokno was also popular among all social classes and became a liaison between Pres. Aquino's new government and the communists, whom he led in different coalitions in the past. Despite Diokno's seemingly stoic demeanor and very simple lifestyle, Diokno was also known to be quite eloquent and was completely blunt with his opinions, as he usually avoided any sugarcoating. One instance was when he addressed an affluent American audience at the Westchester Country Club in New York:

Immediately after topping the Bar exam, Diokno embarked on his law practice at his father's bupete or law office, handling and winning high-profile cases including Vera v. Avelino, G.R. L-543, on behalf of his father, Sen. Ramón Diokno, who let the young Diokno quickly take over the bupete. Diokno also successfully fought libel charges against radio personality and Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson, who was a close friend and would often visit Diokno and his wife in the wee hours at their home in Parañaque to prepare them breakfast. Diokno would in turn edit Mayor Lacson's newspaper columns for Free Philippines. Historians learned a few years after Mayor Lacson's sudden passing that Lacson even intended for Diokno to be his running mate, as the Manila Mayor's fame made him the top presidential candidate for the 1965 election. Diokno served in different committees under President Ramon Magsaysay, and by 1958, Diokno gained enough stature to be selected to join a special committee to investigate the Department of Finance. He was later invited to return to investigate anomalies happening in the Bureau of Supply Corrections.

In 1963, Diokno ran for senator under the Nacionalista Party and won with almost half of the popular vote.

In March 1962, Diokno ordered a raid on a firm owned by Harry S. Stonehill, an American businessman who was suspected of tax evasion and bribing public officials, among other crimes. Diokno's investigation of Stonehill further revealed corruption within government ranks, and as Secretary of Justice, he prepared to prosecute those involved. However, President Macapagal intervened, negotiating a deal that absolved Stonehill in exchange for his deportation, then ordering Diokno to resign. Diokno only learned of his resignation from the news and received death threats from supporters of the president, which prompted Mayor Lacson to offer Diokno special security. Diokno questioned Macapagal's actions, saying, "How can the government now prosecute the corrupted when it has allowed the corrupter to go?" Macapagal would become unpopular and eventually lose the next election in 1965 to another controversial politician also connected with Stonehill named Ferdinand Marcos.

With his reputation as a legal practitioner established and secured, in 1961, Diokno was appointed Secretary of Justice by President Diosdado Macapagal through Lacson's support.

Sen. Diokno was married to Carmen Reyes "Nena" Icasiano on March 28, 1949 in Ermita, with whom he had ten (10) children: Carmen Leonor or Mench, who was born a year after the marriage and became college valedictorian, then first joined the garment industry with husband Emil Escay before working for NGOs; Jose Ramon or Popoy, who joined the Lopez Group of Companies that established the ABS-CBN Corporation; Maria de la Paz or Pat, who joined a banking company called ComBank; Maria Serena or Maris, who is a nationally recognized historian; Maria Teresa or Maitet, who is a UP cum laude graduate of Economics and was executive director of a non-profit institution called IBON Foundation; Maria Socorro or Cookie, who was secretary-general of the Regional Council of Human Rights in Asia and secretary-general at FLAG since 1976; Jose Miguel or Mike, who is a US-based lawyer; Jose Manuel or Chel, who is a professor and lawyer; Maria Victoria or Maia, also a lawyer and her father's CHR secretary; and Martin Jose, who is a Singapore-based architect from UST and was adopted when he was two weeks old. Diokno also has at least 18 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. His children all excelled in their studies, but Diokno would often chide his children about their lack of perfect scores, to which Maris would reply that studying in schools like the American-founded UP (which is the official public national university and where Sen. Diokno wished to enroll in but was banned by his politically-moderate parents) made very good scores the equivalent to perfect scores at DLSU, a private, sectarian Catholic university.

After Diokno enrolled at the University of Santo Tomas, his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of WWII. When the war was over, he was granted a special dispensation by the Supreme Court of the Philippines and was allowed to take the Philippine Bar Examination despite having never completed his degree. He topped the 1944 bar exam together with a 24 year old future ally named Jovito Salonga with a score of 95.3, the highest since Jose L. Quintos of Bulacan set the record in 1903. As a reward he took a solo vacation in the United States, where he would frequently call Carmen "Nena" Icasiano, a commerce student from Bulacan studying at Far Eastern University. They met in 1946 at a dinner party hosted by a future mayor named Arsenio Lacson, and Diokno started courting her, refusing to listen to his father to marry José Abad Santos's daughter. Diokno married Carmen at Ermita Church immediately after Diokno returned from his shortened trip. He quickly proposed to her after he found out on the telephone that she had tuberculosis and had missed seeing him.

In 1937, Diokno graduated high school as the valedictorian at De La Salle College, now called De La Salle University (DLSU), and went on to take a bachelor's degree in commerce, also at DLSU. He was an ROTC lieutenant, dramatist, writer, and leader. He later developed a skill in photography and owned a studio. Diokno initially wanted to study mechanical engineering, but eventually compromised with his parents to take up commerce since his parents wanted a major that featured legal studies. He realized he enjoyed the legal courses the most and decided to take up law once he finished his undergraduate studies. He graduated from college summa cum laude due to repeated acceleration. Diokno took the CPA board examinations in 1940—for which he had to secure special dispensation, since he was too young. He topped the CPA with a grade of 91.18. However, since Diokno was too young when he passed the CPA exam, he could not receive a proper license until he was twenty-one, which led him to continue his father's advice and take up law like his siblings.

Jose Wright Diokno GCrL (February 26, 1922 – February 27, 1987), also known as "Ka Pepe", was a Filipino nationalist, lawyer, and politician. Regarded as the "Father of Human Rights Advocacy in the Philippines", he served as Senator of the Philippines, Secretary of Justice, founding chair of the Commission on Human Rights, and founder of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), the premier group of Filipino human rights lawyers. Diokno is the only person to top both the Philippine Bar Examination and the board exam for Certified Public Accountants (CPA). His career was dedicated to the promotion of human rights, the defense of Philippine sovereignty, and the enactment of pro-Filipino economic legislation.

Jose W. Diokno was born in Manila on Feb. 26, 1922, to Ramón Diokno y Marasigan, a former senator and Justice of the Supreme Court from Taal, Batangas, and Leonor Wright y Garcia, an American mestiza of British descent.

Diokno grew up in Ermita and was baptized at Ermita Church on September 3, 1922. Diokno was the seventh of ten children, and had three half-siblings from Ramón's first spouse, Martha Fello Diokno, who passed away years ago. Diokno would later often say that he was "100% Filipino". Ramón Diokno was considered an anti-imperialist nationalist as senator and was one of four senators to oppose the American Parity Rights Amendment. Jose W. Diokno's grandfather was Ananías Diokno, a navy general and governor in the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine–American War in Visayas. Ananías's great-great grandfather was Félix Berenguer de Marquina y Fitzgerald, the namesake of Marikina who was viceroy of New Spain and governor-general of the Philippines from 1788 to 1793. Berenguer de Marquina had an extramarital affair with a Chinese-British mestiza from Cagsawa, Albay named Demetria Sumulong y Lindo and sired one daughter. He abandoned his family to repatriate to Spain and later became the lieutenant-general of the navy in 1799. He was said to be an incompetent but persevering governor.