Jose Manuel I. Diokno, law dean of De La Salle University, signs this statement for the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), a lawyers’ group organized during the Marcos dictatorship to provide legal assistance to dissenters of that regime and to campaign against its massive violations of people’s rights. In a separate interview, Atty. Diokno described the Supreme Court’s May 11 decision to oust its own Chief Justice, Ma. Lourdes Sereno, based on a quo warranto petition: “The Court has not only emasculated its own powers, it has abdicated its great role as guardian of the Constitution.” Dean Diokno is the son of the late senator, human rights champion, and FLAG founder Jose “Ka Pepe” Diokno.
