Chel Diokno: Like Father, Like Son
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Chel Diokno
"Another Diokno enters the fray, ready to wage courtroom battles for truth and justice," Diokno posted on social media, congratulating his daughter.
"Lolo Pepe, Lolo Ramon, and Lolo Ananias are smiling from heaven. Can’t wait to appear in court beside you!" the proud father of six added.
Indeed, public service has been in the Diokno blood for over a century.
Chel's great-grandfather, General Ananias Diokno, was appointed by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo to lead a full-scale military expedition to the Visayas against the Spanish forces during the Philippine Revolution. Ananias’ successful landing along the coast of Panay Island was considered one of the first missions of a nascent Philippine Navy, and for this, he came to be known as General of the Seas.
Ramon Diokno, Chel’s grandfather, was a former senator and Supreme Court Associate Justice. Ramon was a brilliant lawyer, whose clients ranged from revolutionaries such as Macario Sakay, to labor unions, and the landed elite. Chel’s father, former Senator Jose W. Diokno, more popularly known as “Ka Pepe,” was one of the greatest statesmen of his time. Jailed without charges during martial law, Ka Pepe defended victims of human rights violations soon after his release from prison. Today, Sen. Diokno is regarded as the father of human rights advocacy in the Philippines.
The Dioknos: General Ananias Diokno, Senator Ramon Diokno and Senator Jose Diokno
Chel comes from a family of freedom advocates and lawyers. It is not surprising that he chose to pursue a legal career, having been exposed to the courtroom at a young age, and to take up the cause of human rights after he took his oath as a lawyer.
“It was 1974, the height of the Marcos dictatorship, when I first started going to court with Dad. The first time I saw him in action, I was hooked. I knew then, without a shadow of a doubt, that I would become a lawyer. And of course, I wanted to be a lawyer like him,” Chel recalled in 2012.1
And become a lawyer he did. Like father, like son.
“As he seeks a Senate position for the second time, Chel Diokno plans to institutionalize free legal service for every barrio and barangay in the country.”
After graduating from the University of the Philippines in Diliman with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, Chel pursued a Juris Doctor degree from the Northern Illinois University College of Law. He left for the United States, armed with the conviction that whatever knowledge and skills he would gain there, he would use to serve his country. Like father, like son.
Chel finished law school with flying colors, graduating magna cum laude – “magna cum lucky,” as Ka Pepe affectionately joked – finishing fifth in his class. (Ka Pepe could afford to tease his son – he was, after all, the only person to top both the board exam for Certified Public Accountants and Philippine Bar exam—and without a law degree, to boot.)
Chel was admitted to the Bar of the State of Illinois in 1986. Two years later, he was admitted to the Philippine Bar, and along with the lawyer’s oath, his father’s words rang clear in his mind:
“No cause is more worthy than the cause of human rights. They are what makes a man human. That is why they are called human rights. Deny them and you deny man’s humanity.”
And like his father, Chel took up his father's cause. Since 1989, Chel has conducted legal missions, paralegal trainings, and free consultations for disadvantaged – the dehado (underdog) – including the urban poor, farmers, fisher folk, and indigenous peoples.
In 2003, Chel took over the reins of his father’s legacy, becoming the chairman of the Free Legal Assistance Group or FLAG, the first and largest group of human rights lawyers in the Philippines. FLAG was founded by Ka Pepe, Senators Lorenzo Tañada, and Joker Arroyo in 1974, at the height of the Marcos dictatorship, conceived by Ka Pepe after his release as Marcos’ political prisoner for 718 days.
One of Chel’s first cases was seeking indemnity for the families of the victims in the tragic sinking of the MV Doña Paz, considered the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in history. Three decades later in 2017, as Chairman of FLAG, Chel won the class action suit through a United States counterpart law firm, filed in the Louisiana Supreme Court, finally giving a sense of closure for the families of the victims.
Another notable case won by Chel was the first and landmark ruling of the writ of amparo issued by the Supreme Court, in favor of brothers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo, farmers who were abducted in February 2006 by the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) in San Ildefonso, Bulacan, and detained and tortured for 18 months.
Like his father before him, Chel lives the law, breathes it, imbibes it, and teaches it. In 2009, he was appointed the Founding Dean of the De La Salle University College of Law, the first law school in the country to give emphasis to human rights and free legal service. He continues to share his knowledge of the law via his social media accounts including TikTok and YouTube.
Chel is known as the Abogado ng mga Dehado because like his father before him, he realizes that the law can also be used to liberate people from their oppression. Even the coronavirus pandemic couldn’t stop him from rendering free legal service to the people. In April 2021, he established the Free Legal Helpdesk on Facebook, which has been able to help more than 19,000 people.
As he seeks a Senate position for the second time, Chel plans to institutionalize free legal service for every barrio and barangay in the country. Because like his father before him, Chel wants – in his own words – to “use the law to challenge state policies, practices, and institutions that generate mass injustice and human rights violations.”3 In other words, using the law to promote the genuine development of all Filipinos.
Sources:
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/151949/jose-w-diokno-fleshing-out-a-legend
https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/182775-jose-ka-pepe-diokno-human-rights/
The son of a Martial Law political prisoner and human rights abuse victim, Quintin Enrico Cepeda has been involved in government and political communications since 2011. He is proud to be one of Atty. Chel Diokno's Cheldren.
