Lawyers From The Philippines

"Women are capable of a higher ethical standard than men. While 65% of the Filipino bureaucracy is composed of women, only 20% of graft and corruption cases involve women. Men, who comprise 35% of the bureaucracy, are involved in 80% of graft and corruption cases. The higher ethical standard of women should be a source of societal transformation."

"Once, I traveled to Palawan, and I was given a parrot to take home. We put the parrot in a cage. It was supposed to talk after two years. But my children, who were brought up valuing freedom, wanted to release the bird. So one fine morning, we opened the cage door for the parrot to fly free. On the first day, the parrot refused to leave the cage. On the second day, the parrot approached the open door, but still refused to leave. On the third day, the parrot finally went out, but it soon returned to the safety of the cage again. It was only on the fourth day that the parrot flew away. We never saw the parrot again. In the same way, when we are encumbered with too much centralized authority and too many rules, we succumb to learned helplessness. Only after trying hard can we learn to fly and to use our wings again."

"Read, read and read for when you read, you stand on the shoulders of giants, you see farther than the rest."

"When the spark of greatness leads to an act of self-giving, we cross the threshold of heroism."

"Filipinos are undoubtedly one of the most talented people in the whole world. We have the roots in the Madjapahit and Srivijayan empires. We benefited from the cosmopolitan traditions of Spain, the Napoleonic Code and the theories of European law. We inherited the Judeo-Christian tradition and Anglo-Saxon ideas of political freedom. We have benefitted from different sources of civilization. We must harness this intellectual capital so that the Philippines will grow as fast as it can."

"Consider the candle. When it spreads its light, it does not diminish. Makisindi man tayo sa kandila, hindi mawawala ang ilaw ng pinagsindihan natin. Nakadaragdag ang ilaw. (Even if we light a second candle from another, the light from the first candle is not lost. The light shines even brighter.) Light is one of the few things we can give away and yet still always have."

"Never lie. Lying never pays. Don’t make your life difficult by lying. When you lie, you have to create different versions of the story to different people. Make your life easier by seeking and telling the truth."

"What is the most precious commodity in the world? It is neither gold nor diamond, but water. Try doing without water for three days. But notice that we can hold water only with an open palm. If we close our hands, water will flow out. The same thing can be said of knowledge. To be of any real value, knowledge must be shared."

"We cannot criticize the Emperor for having no clothes if we ourselves are naked."

"At some point in our lives, we are forced by circumstances to see ourselves as we really are. The Greeks said it best: ‘Know thyself.’ It is only through a confrontation with the self that expiation is possible. We cannot keep running away from ourselves forever."

"The problem with lies is they do not only quarrel with the truth. They also quarrel among themselves."

"If we are good teachers, our students will not need us anymore when they learn to fly away on their wings. Our success as teachers is measured precisely by the independence that our students have learned from us."

"Two brothers lived in a town beset by a capre (monster). The older brother went off to fight the monster, but he never came back. A year later, the younger brother found the monster and killed it. As it lay on the ground, the monster transformed into his older brother. The lesson here is that we must not become the enemy that we fight."

"Winning comes from self-knowledge."

"Equal opportunity should be given to all and special privileges for none."

"The Greeks tell us that the law should not be like a spider’s web that can catch only flies. Instead the law should be a chain of words strong enough to imprison even the powerful."

"I think the three people here tonight can end the elections today – if they just agree with each other."

"I have developed a healthy suspicion of power. We want dispersal of power, dispersal of participation, and dispersal of development and human resources."

"In Filipino: Sa kaunting aral, kaunting sipag, kaunting dasal, walang hindi magagawa kahit mayroong hadlang. Sa kaunting aral, kaunting sipag, kaunting dasal, walang hindi magagawa ang taong may pagkukusa. (With a little education, a little hard work, a little prayer, there is nothing that cannot be done even if there are obstacles. With a little education, a little hard work, a little prayer, there is nothing that a person with initiative cannot do.)"

"Transparency is the way to fight graft and corruption."

"The people is the final arbiter. Politics is won in one day."

"Leadership today should be like the leadership of an orchestra conductor. The conductor may not know how to play the piano, but with a wave of a hand, he or she can tell the piano player to play pianissimo. The conductor may not know how to play the violin, but with the wave of a hand, he or she can tell the violin player to play fortissimo. The conductor may not know how to play a clarinet, but he or she can bring out the best from the clarinet player. The leader, like the conductor, draws out talent from everybody and creates a symphony out of everybody’s best efforts."

"If I must err, I prefer to err on the side of action and decision, not on the side of inaction and indecision."

"There is no place in a democracy for humiliating people as a policy instrument."

"A strong republic does not make a strong nation. Strong people make a strong nation. It’s not the strong republic that makes strong people."

"We often forget that it is people who are important. Political pragmatism cannot replace the caring for and nurturing of people. Money and influence cannot replace truth or principle."

"We have seen the names, we knew who Mary Grace Piattos is, we saw that there were peculiar names which do not exist in our Philippine Statistics Office database, no birth certificate, no marriage certificate, no death certificate."

"There was a strange aftertaste to many of the calls for grand social reform in 2020. As the coronavirus crisis overtook us, the left wing on both sides of the Atlantic, at least that part that had been fired up Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders, was going down to defeat. The promise of a radicalized and reenergized left, organized around the idea of the Green New Deal, seemed to dissipate amidst the pandemic. It fell to governments mainly of the center and the right to meet the crisis. They were a strange assortment. Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Donald Trump in the United States experimented with denial. For them climate skepticism and virus skepticism went hand in hand. In Mexico, the notionally left-wing government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador also pursued a maverick path, refusing to take drastic action. Nationalist strongmen like Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Narendra Modi in India, Vladimir Putin in Russia, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey did not deny the virus, but relied on their patriotic appeal and bullying tactics to see them through. It was the managerial centrist types who were under most pressure. Figures like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in the United States, or Sebastián Piñera in Chile, or Cyril Ramaphosa in South Africa, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Ursula von der Leyen, and their ilk in Europe. They accepted the science. Denial was not an option. They were desperate to demonstrate that they were better than the 'populists.' To meet the crisis, very middle-of-the-road politicians ended up doing very radical things. Most of it was improvisation and compromise, but insofar as they managed to put a programmatic gloss on their responses—whether in the form of the EU's Next Generation program or Biden's Build Back Better program in 2020—it came from the repertoire of green modernization, sustainable development, and the Green New Deal."

"By his own policies and actions, Duterte has defined his legacy. It is a malignant one characterized by treason, tyranny, butchery, corruption and deception."

"We do have an unfit President. He just confessed to doing the killing of people in Davao and we know that he's the one promoting and encouraging and tolerating these killings and therefore, that is an impeachable offense."

"He has taken a personal vendetta against me because he has not forgotten when I was chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights and I led an investigation into the Davao Death Squad."

"Your incoherent and foul-mouthed rant against two of the country’s major media outfits – the Philippine Daily Inquirer and ABS-CBN – was not only unwarranted, it was absolutely twisted. It was a brazen abuse of your immense power as chief executive of this land and only shows how little, if any, appreciation you have of democracy and governance."

"Graft and corruption is endemic and everybody speaks out but nobody has done much except Mayor Rody Duterte."

"When you criticize me, do not use the platform of God... Do not take God's name in vain because pag-resbak ko, makasali ko na 'yung Panginoong Diyos. (when I retaliate, I will include God.)"

"He's the most outrageous, the most colourful and the most interesting character in this upcoming presidential election... We like to compare him to Trump of the US because he likes to shock with his statements. He can be very irreverent and very reckless."

"Do not hesistate to attack me, criticize me, if I do wrong in my job. It is your duty."

"[On Chel Diokno, a lawyer] Ito si Diokno magsalita parang janitor. At saka tumakbo ka ng senador, eh hindi kayo binoto ng tao. Alam mo kung bakit? Pwede kitang biruin? Huwag kang magalit. Alam mo kung bakit hindi ka nanalo? Kasi kalaki ng ngipin mo. Magsalita kalahati ng panga mo lumalabas...Bakit ganun? Binabastos kita? Eh putang ina, galit ako sa iyo. Sumobra ka. Sige subukan mo."

"Anybody can criticize me, except for foreigners."

"He says crazy things but he get things done. His main agenda is peace and order, and he has shown that he is good at that in Davao."

"On Francisco Tatad, journalist and former Philippine senator] You Tatad. You know, there is a border between press freedom and disrespecting people. If I see you, get out of my way. You son of a bitch, I will slap you. Believe me, I will slap you in front of a lot of people...You really want to test if we really have [it]? You have a wife. You lend her to me, you son of a bitch. Maybe let’s do it here. It’ll be fine. It's just 10 minutes."

"[On Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, removed in 2018 after criticising Duterte] Talagang dapat paalisin ka, noon pa. Bobo ka na, putang ina, kung anong pinagsasabi mo. (That’s why you really have to go, even back then. You're already stupid, son of a bitch, you keep on saying all sorts of things.) I’m putting you on notice that I’m your enemy and you have to be out of the Supreme Court. I will see to it. And after that, I will request Congress go to the impeachment right away."

"[On Teddy Casiño, a former Bayan Muna representative] Ikaw, Teddy, 'yung ulo mo sobrang laki (You, Teddy, your head is so big). That's the problem with an excess brain, it does not work at all...Huwag ka masyadong hambog, wala kang ipakitang ano (Don't be too arrogant, you have nothing to show for it)."

"[On the International Criminal Court (ICC)] I said you’re all bullshit. They want to send me to prison and try me for genocide… They are a bunch of criminals, they cannot even show me how they died, when they died, where. Nothing."

"New York Times… Asshole, asshole. You cannot even criticize your own mistake. Invading a country, making up excuses before the world that is not true, then you have the gall to say stop. You better stop your publishing."

"He must be stupid, this ex-President of Colombia [saying] Duterte is committing the same mistake. We cannot, never be on the same mistake because I am not stupid; you are."

"[On Agnès Callamard, the UN Special Rapporteur] Kaya sabi ko, Callamard, kung imbestigahan mo ako, sampalin kita."

"[On Leni Robredo, former Vice President of the Philippines] I don’t think she can ever be ready to govern a country. Reason? Incompetence. She’s not capable of running a country like this, Philippines."

"[On the Commission on Audit of the Philippines ] Putangina 'yang COA na 'yan. Letse kasi yung COA, everytime may mali talaga. Ano ba naman itong COA na ito? Kung magkidnap tayo ng taga-COA, lagay natin, i-torture natin dito, 'tangina."

"On Florin Hilbay, former Solicitor-General and a 2019 opposition senatorial candidate] He acts like a man and pretends that Agot is his girlfriend. Be true to yourself. You're gay. Don't hide behind a cover. You were made by God. God made a mistake. Just because he's a God does not mean he is incapable of making mistakes."

"[On Justin Trudeau, the Canadian PM] For God's sake, Mr. Trudeau, my own citizens are rebelling against us; killing my soldiers and policemen and civilians. And I cannot use the helicopter because they are citizens but they are out to overthrow my government. If you cannot understand [that], you should not be there in that mighty post of yours. Because you do not know the history of the world and geopolitics."