Jovito Salonga
Jovito R. Salonga also known as Ka Jovy
Born poor in a remote barrio in Pasig, Rizal on June 22, 1920. His father was a Presbyterian pastor; his mother was a market vendor. The youngest of five brothers, Jovito Reyes Salonga worked his way through college and law school, as a proofreader in the publishing firm of his eldest brother Isayas. In his senior year at the College of Law of the University of the Philippines, he stopped working to prepare for the bar exams and was assisted by his elder brother Ben, a chemical and mining engineer in the employ of the Government, who was also a professor at Mapua Institute of Technology.
A few months after the Japanese invasion in December 1941, Jovy went underground and engaged in anti-Japanese activities. In April 1942, he was captured, investigated, and severely tortured by the Japanese Military Police in Pasig, in the presence of his aging father. Transferred to Fort Santiago prison, he endured tremendous suffering and was transferred later to several jails. On June 11, 1942, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor by the Japanese Military Court and brought to the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa, where he met all sorts of people—murderers, thieves and patriots. By a stroke of good fortune, he was pardoned on the Foundation Day of Japan (Kigen Setsu) in 1943. Allowed to take the bar exams in August 1944, Salonga copped first place on the bar examinations with a grade of 95.3%. and made plans to attend Harvard for his master’s degree. He followed up his master’s at Harvard with a doctorate from Yale University, but turned down a faculty position there because he felt he should take part in post-war reconstruction in the Philippines.
He graduated with an LL.B. degree in 1946 from the UP College of Law and was admitted by Harvard Law School, where he finished his LL.M. degree in 1948. Jovy married Lydia Busuego in Cambridge, Massachusetts on February 14, 1948. Recommended by Harvard Prof. Manley Hudson to Yale Law School, he was awarded a fellowship that enabled him to earn his JSD degree at Yale in 1949. He was given the Ambrose Gherini prize for writing the best paper in International Law.
Salonga returned to the Philippines and engaged in law teaching and practice. He authored several law books—Private International Law, Corporation Law, Evidence and Public International Law—and was appointed Dean of Law of Far Eastern University in 1956.
In 1960, he was persuaded by Vice President Diosdado Macapagal, then LP President, to run for Congress in the second district of Rizal, which had been dominated by two political dynasties. Salonga helped build the LP from the grassroots, largely with the aid of the youth who responded to the issue he raised—whether power should be concentrated in two family dynasties or whether the little people, the poor and the weak, should assert their regret to participate in the running of government. Many young people supported him. In the November 1961 elections, Jovy bested his two opponents by an overwhelming margin.
Shortly after his election, he tangled with one of the best NP debaters in the House on the issue of proportional representation in the various committees. He also composed a seminal article, published and editorialized in various papers, on the right of the Government to claim North Borneo (Sabah). With the election of Cornelio Villareal (LP, Capiz) as Speaker, Salonga was accorded a high honor—the Chairmanship of the prestigious Committee on Good Government. In June 1942, President Macapagal filed the Philippine claim to North Borneo. Salonga was appointed Chair of the Legal Committee in the January 1963 London Negotiations on the North Borneo Claim.
After one term, Jovy was chosen to run for the Senate under the LP banner in the 1965 elections. Despite lack of adequate material resources and the victory of NP candidate Marcos as president, Salonga was elected No.1 Senator. In 1967, Jovy was Ninoy Aquino’s chief lawyer in the underage case filed against the latter by President Marcos. Ninoy, through Jovy’s help, won the case in the Comelec, then in the Supreme Court and finally in the Senate Electoral Tribunal. For his well-documented exposes against the Marcos Administration, Salonga was hailed as the Nation’s Fiscalizer by the Philippines Free Press in 1968.
He ran for re-election in 1971. Along with other leaders, Jovy was bombed on August 21 during the Liberal Party proclamation rally on Plaza Miranda. Most of his 34 doctors did not expect him to live. But he survived, with impaired eyesight and hearing, and more than a hundred tiny pieces of shrapnel in his body. Despite inability to campaign, he was elected No.1 Senator for the second time.
Upon his return he embarked on a successful law career. He protested Martial law and was unjustly arrested. After his release from military custody, he was offered a visiting scholarship at Yale, where he engaged in the revision of his book on International Law. He completed his book on the Marcos years and a program for a new democratic Philippines.
With the imposition of martial law by Marcos in September 1972, which Salonga openly opposed, he and his law partners — Sedfrey Ordoñez and Pedro L. Yap — handled the cases of well-known political prisoners and many obscure detainees. In October 1980, following the bombing of the Philippine International Convention Center, Marcos ordered Salonga’s detention in Fort Bonifacio, without any formal charges and without any investigation. Partly due to many protests here and abroad, he was eventually released from military custody by Marcos. He was allowed to leave with his wife for abroad in March 1981, to attend several international conferences and undergo medical examinations. Subversion charges were filed against him after their departure. Jovy and Lydia lived in self-exile in Hawaii, then in Encino, California, where he was visited by many Opposition leaders, including Ninoy Aquino. It was here where, at the request of LP President Gerry Roxas, Salonga wrote the LP Vision and Program of Government, which was approved by the Party a little later. After the demise of Roxas in New York in April 1982, Salonga was elected Acting President of the Liberal Party.
The assassination of Ninoy Aquino in August 1983 prompted Jovy to return to the Philippines in January 21, 1985 to help revitalize the LP and unite the democratic opposition. A month later, the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the subversion charges filed against him. He was elected President of the Liberal Party. Shortly after the EDSA Revolution, President Aquino appointed Salonga Chair of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), which was tasked with investigating and recovering the ill-gotten wealth of the members of the past regime. After his one-year stint with PCGG, he was drafted to run for the Senate in the 1987 elections. For the third time, he was elected No.1 Senator. Chosen Senate President by his peers, Salonga authored three major legislative measures: the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees (R.A. 6713), the Anti-Coup d’etat Act (R.A. 6968), and the Anti-Plunder Law (R.A. 7080). In April 1990, he was conferred the honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of the Philippines “for his brilliant career as an eminent political figure… for his unwavering, courageous stand against injustice, oppression, and dictatorship… and for his sterling personal qualities of decency, humility, industry and moderation.”
He consistently topped three Senatorial elections despite lack of material means under three different administrations (that of Diosdado Macapagal, Ferdinand Marcos and Corazon Aquino). He has successfully legislated the State Scholarship Law, the Disclosure of Interest Act, the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers, and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, and the Act Defining and Penalizing the Crime of Plunder.
In September 1991, Jovy led a group of 12 Senators in rejecting the R.P.-U.S. Bases Treaty, thus ending 470 years of foreign military presence in the Philippines. But he had to pay a heavy price for his unpopular decision—his financial backers in the business community withdrew their support for his presidential campaign. Salonga lost, despite the support of the youth from various colleges and universities. After his retirement from Government service in 1992, he decided to continue his service to the people—through Kilosbayan (People Action), the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation, which honors the nation’s martyrs and heroes for their sacrifices during martial law, and Bantay Katarungan (Sentinel of Justice), which seeks to improve the administration of justice in the Philippines, through the systematic monitoring of courts and quasi-judicial agencies by selected students from leading law schools. The Chair of Bantay Katarungan is former Secretary of Justice Sedfrey Ordoñez, who had been Jovy’s law partner for 33 years. Salonga is its founder and adviser. Since his retirement from Government in 1992, Jovy has been delivering lectures from time to time in various educational institutions, including the UP, Ateneo, UST, De la Salle and FEU. He teaches regularly at the Lyceum of the Philippines where he holds the Jose P. Laurel Chair on Law, Government and Public Policy.
Due to the serious crisis confronting secondary education in the Philippines, Dr. Salonga, in early June 2005, launched a fortnightly paper, Living News and Good Education, for use by high school teachers and students in public schools. The purpose of the paper is to help instill in high school students “Better English , Better Values and Better Learning in Math and Science.”
Salonga has been awarded honorary degrees by various universities, here and abroad.