Chairmanship of the Economic Affairs Committee

The Board of Investments was created by Sen. Diokno's Investment Incentives Act in 1967.

Senator Diokno became chairman of the Senate Economic Affairs Committee, and worked for the passage of pro-Filipino legislation, including what is considered to be the most important incentive law in the country, RA 5186, also known as the Investment Incentives Act of 1967, which provides incentives to mostly Filipino investors and entrepreneurs that would place control of the Philippine economy predominantly in the hands of Filipinos.^[28] The law would also be the first groundbreaking initiative of the Philippine economy to gradually step out of its import substitution mindset.^[29] It also led to the foundation of the Board of Investments, the premier government agency responsible for propagating investments in the Philippines.

Diokno then authored RA 6173 or the Oil Industry Commission Act of 1971, which created the Oil Industry Commission (OIC) to regulate oil pricing in different companies. This eventually led to the dominance of three oil companies in Caltex, the alternative name of the American corporation Chevron, Petron, a local partner of Middle-Eastern Saudi Aramco and is owned by the monopoly brewery San Miguel Corporation, and Shell based in the Netherlands.^[30]

Civil rights activism

Diokno making a speech

When Marcos suspended the fundamental legal right of the writ of habeas corpus following the bombing of the Plaza Miranda gathering of Liberal Party members, Diokno resigned from the Nacionalista Party in protest and took to the streets.^[31] Sen. Diokno called on students to start protesting against the administration, anticipating that Marcos, who was nearing the end of his last term, would declare martial law and change the constitution to give himself absolute power.^[11][32]

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.^[33] 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.^[34] 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.^[35] 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 makes a man human. That is why they are called human rights: deny them and you deny man's humanity."^[36]

He was the leader of the Movement of Concerned Citizens for Civil Liberties (MCCCL), which organized a series of rallies from 1971 to 1972.^[37] The most massive of these rallies involved 50,000 protestors and was held on September 21, 1972, shortly before the imposition of martial law by the Marcos dictatorship.^[38] During this rally, protestors denounced the infamous Oplan Sagittarius, the devious operation plan by Marcos to declare martial law. Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. 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.^[39] 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.^[40][41][42]

Imprisonment and organized coalitions

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.

At 1:00 a.m. before the announcement, Diokno was arrested by the Marcos dictatorial regime.^[43] After cutting communication lines in multiple neighborhoods, including Diokno's home, six carloads carrying forty armed soldiers visited Diokno at his home at 12 Margarita Street, Magallanes Village, Makati to "invite" him for questioning. He changed from his pajamas and was sent to Camp Crame. They had no warrant.^[11]

A wax figure of the late Sen. Diokno in the Delta Room at Fort Magsaysay, where he was confined for thirty days and banned from keeping any items

After Diokno was brought to Camp Crame, he was transferred to Fort Bonifacio, where he was detained along with other opposition members such as Aquino and Chino Roces, the founder and head of The Manila Times, the leading newspaper at the time. The military's Defense Minister Enrile offered a security detail to Diokno "to protect (him) from Communist assassins," to which Diokno laughed and responded that he really needed protection from the military.^[44]

Diokno and Aquino, whom the dictatorship considered their foremost opponents, were later handcuffed, blindfolded, and transferred via a chopper to solitary confinement at Fort Magsaysay, located in the municipality of Laur, Nueva Ecija. They remained confined to Fort Magsaysay for exactly thirty days. They both learned of each other's presence through singing. One of them would frequently sing the national anthem Lupang Hinirang or "Chosen Land," to which the other would reply by singing Bayan Ko or "My Country" to prove he was still alive.^[45] From the fish being served by the cook Aling Cely, who later became the museum curator of the converted national memorial called the "Aquino-Diokno Memorial," Diokno was able to correctly deduce that he was detained in Nueva Ecija, particularly in Fort Magsaysay.^[46]

To tally the number of days, Diokno used rope knots from his mosquito net as well as the back of a soap packaging box and crossed out each day in the manner of a calendar. His visiting family members were often strip-searched by soldiers. They would sneak in books in French and Spanish for him to read, and he would converse to his wife in Spanish for only them to comprehend. Diokno would tell his family not to weep in front of the sadistic soldiers. Only his godmother Paz Wilson, a nonagenarian and a mother figure since his mother's passing, would frequently cry during every visit. She continued to visit despite also undergoing strip searches. The family would be in tears once they left the prison, where the Aquino family would see them. This helped the Aquinos prepare themselves emotionally since they never saw the Diokno family manifest much pain before. Nena Diokno, suspicious of Marcos, took most of her husband's books at the library of his bupete on M.H. del Pilar and brought them home before the military burned down the building. Jose would thank her as he was very familiar with the library and memorized the location of each shelf and book he read.^[47] Outside the prison, Marcos announced at his executive mansion, Malacañang Palace that September 21 would be known as "National Thanksgiving Day," the same day Diokno led his biggest Plaza Miranda rally. This declaration has led to a general confusion about the true date of the public announcement of martial law, which was actually on September 23, two days after Proclamation No. 1081 was signed.

Sen. Diokno celebrating with Carmen their silver wedding anniversary while he was still under custody on March 28, 1974

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.^[48] 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.

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."^[49] KAAKBAY later elevated pressure politics as an important principle for post-democracy through its publication called "The Plaridel Papers."^[50] 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."^[51] 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 relatively 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.^[52]

From January 7 to 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 Cardinal Jaime 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.^[53]

Diokno was a part of multiple organizations and alliances that fought the administration and foreign intervention. He continued to attack the different policies of the Marcos administration, such as their controversial nuclear programs that led to the sabotaged construction of the costly Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, thereby infuriating Marcos.^[54] Diokno continued to serve as the leader behind ceasing Marcos's numerous incomplete projects.

Human rights work

Diokno at the lower left of a painting at UP holding a microphone

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.^[55] FLAG handled 90 percent of human rights cases in the country as well as built programs to educate citizens about human rights.^[56][23] Diokno was also involved in documenting cases of torture, summary execution, and disappearances under the Marcos regime.^[11]

Diokno had no fear of being arrested again, and went around and outside the Philippines, spreading a message of hope and democracy. In another oft-quoted speech, he once quipped:

And so law in the land died. I grieve for it but I do not despair over it. I know, with a certainty no argument can turn, no wind can shake, that from its dust will rise a new and better law: more just, more human, and more humane. When that will happen, I know not. That it will happen, I know.^[36]

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.^[57][58] 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.^[59] 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.^[60][61][62] 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.^[63][64]

People Power and final years

After founding JAJA together with friend and former Sen. Lorenzo M. Tañada, Diokno was chosen to serve as chairman of its executive committee.^[65] The two leaders were the only members to call for a boycott in the upcoming, nationwide Batasan Elections, predicting that it would be fixed.^[66]

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.^[67] 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.^[68] One of the Constitutional Commissioners and KAAKBAY member Ed Garcia frequented Diokno's New Manila home before the ratification of the Constitution.^[69] Commissioner Jose Nolledo cited Diokno as an inspiration behind the human rights and public health provisions that were pro-poor and nationalistic.^[70]

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 home. On July 4, 1986, which was the U.S. independence day, Diokno 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 returned to his final residence at 55 3rd St., New Manila, Quezon City, to spend his days reading and writing cases. This was after he had to shave his hair off and already experienced a declining vision. He continued to work all out for four more months, despite his illness, until his passing on February 27, 1987, at 2:40 a.m.—one day after his 65th birthday at home in New Manila. 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 New Manila, and he was buried at Manila Memorial Park - Sucat but later reinterred at a Metro Manila park on October 6, 1996.^[20][71]

Honors, awards, and historical reputation

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."^[72] 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.^[73] 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.^[74]

J.W. Diokno Boulevard along the Bay City coastline

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.^[75] 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 also had a reputation for philanthropy as one of the Board of Directors at the Philippine Tuberculosis Society, Inc. (PTSI).^[76]

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. Diokno was the first recipient of this honor.^[77][78] By virtue of a presidential proclamation signed by Gloria Arroyo, February 27 is perennially celebrated in the country as Jose W. Diokno Day.^[79]

In 2005, the De La Salle Professional Schools, Inc. Graduate School of Business (DLS-PSI-GSB) handed out the inaugural "Ka Pepe Diokno Human Rights 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.^[80] 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.^[81][82] He has received praise in other sectors, as Rappler has called him the "country's greatest lawyer."^[83] Diokno also received a Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa from the UP College of Law.^[84]

In 2007, by virtue of RA 9468, Bay Boulevard, a 4.38 km road along the Bay City coastline, or Pasay and Parañaque City was renamed J.W. Diokno Boulevard in his honor.

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 Ka Pepe or Bulwagang Diokno (the Ka Pepe or Diokno Hall) and features a bust and an accompanying mural of the late chairman.