Page 8 - OPA 2012

Outstanding Professional Award Outstanding Professional Award

HOMOBONO A. ADAZA II

LAWYER, “SUI GENERIS”,

TRUE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE PEOPLE

I school principal. In high school, he ranked authorities questioned his moral character to
was watching an interview of my father
take the bar as his diploma was withdrawn
first from first year up to fourth year. He
one evening in television. He was in his
ebullient self as always, and I wondered
aloud: Why has this man not become graduated valedictorian at the Misamis by the UP due to the demonstration. But
Oriental High School in Cagayan de Oro
the Supreme Court did not even require
President? May be the question is not right, City. From there, he went to the University my father to answer the UP petition for
it should be: When will this man become of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon disqualification except for him to present a
the leader of our people? This could be the City as entrance school. At the University certification from the Dean of the College
proper question now, as this country is in of the Philippines College of Liberal of Law, Dean Vicente Abad Santos,
search of the right leader since the passing Arts in Diliman, he alternated between that he, in fact, graduated from UP. My
away of Ferdinand E. Marcos. being a university scholar, with a father, while in the College of Law, was
In the telling words of long time Speaker required average of 1 up to 1.45, and as a consistent member of the Order of the
of the House of Representative of several college scholar, with a required average Purple Feather, the honor society of the
Congresses and Minority Floor Leader of 1.46 to 1.75. He finished his pre-law college. At graduation time, he was elected
of the regular Batasan Pambansa, “The with an average of 1.41, equivalent to into two international honor societies
national leader must have brains in his balls magna cum laude. – Phi Kappa Phi, for over-all academic
and balls in his brains. That’s what I like It was in the college of law at the excellence and Pi Gamma Mu, for high
about you, Bono, you have this quality in a University of the Philippines in Diliman academic excellence in the social sciences.
national leader of this country.” where he got involved with extra-curricular My father has been practicing law for
Is it too late now to start this journey to activities. Having edited his high school several decades handling controversial
the stars? I don’t think so. For one, my paper, the Misorien Torch, my father was cases like the Bingbong Crisologo case
father can still play badminton for three not new to journalism or writing, in general. in the Supreme Court with Juan T. David
hours in a mixed doubles game – anytime, In his high school years, he wrote essays, –involving the burning of Ora Este and
any day and any place. Ask him, if you short stories and poems, both in English Ora Oeste in Ilocos Sur; the Haruta
are a friend and a good badminton player and Spanish. So as sophomore at UP Law, Case, as lawyer of Minister of Public
and he will be there to play with you and he took the Philippine Collegian editorial Works and Highways Antonio Raquiza -
your companions, especially if the girls examination for the editor-in-chief of the involving alleged graft and corruption in
are young and beautiful. But forget other official student publication of UP. He passed government; the Rufino Antonio case –
games because as he tells everybody, there as one of the top three examinees from which involving election violence in the province
are only two things in his body that is hard, was chosen the editor-in-chief of the paper of Batanes; as one of the lead counsels
as of the moment, it is his cough and his by the Board of Management, composed of for several generals in1987 coup and the the brilliant and perceptive leader that he leading to his earning the cognomen of 2010, which is still pending with the
hair. Other than that, everything else is student representatives of 18 colleges and 1989 coup; as one of the lead counsels of was, called Pelaez to Malacanang to ask “Mr. Asterisk” when he protested every Supreme Court.
memory. institutes of the UP then. He got a zero vote the military exercise in 2003 at Oakwood, Pelaez the true results of the election in election return as fake and spurious. It was With the recent Chief Justice Corona
But how do you explain his youth and as he was neither a fraternity man nor a Makati City; as one of the lawyers of the Region Ten. Pelaez replied that it was not the canvassing that initially precipitated the impeachment trial, he together with other
vigor? It has nothing to do with women; member of the University of the Philippines Tala Estate case involving the ownership true that the KBL ticket got clobbered. fall of Marcos. When the Cory government citizens, like lawyer Alan Paguia and
it has something to do with his dreams Student Catholic Action (UPSCA), of the whole country by the Tallano family The true results, according to Pelaez, was took over, Bon Adaza was a forgotten man, journalist Herman Tiu Laurel, questioned
for our people and the country. It is quite whose members composed the Board of as shown in Torrens Titles denominated as - there were only two Opposition winners when he refused Cory’s enticement for him the constitutionality of the Articles of
a departure from the ordinary. As his Management. In the succeeding two years, OCT-01-4 and TCT T-408 TCT- T-498. and they had to be proclaimed to avoid to be a Justice of the Supreme but which Impeachment and the subsequent trial.
friends in his days at the University of he took the Collegian examination, ending In December 1972, after the attempt trouble in the region – Reuben Canoy he refused, because the position was only And a week ago, he together with Paguia,
the Philippines will tell you, Bon Adaza in top three, and became twice editor-in- on the life of First Lady Imelda Marcos and Homobono A. Adaza. On learning good for old men. Such are the vagaries of Laurel and Uriel G. Borja filed a petition
is sui generis – class by himself – but chief of the Philippine Collegian on an at Plaza Miranda, he was arrested by the this, Marcos said, “Proclaim Canoy but with the Supreme Court, questioning the
not in the sense of the senators in the annual basis, the only UP student who has Constabulary Intelligence Task Force and not Adaza.” politics and graveyards of men of vision constitutionality of the power of the JBC to
Senate in the recent trial of Chief Justice this achievement. He also became Vice- kept as political prisoner for one year, six In 1980, he was elected Provincial Governor and principles. recommend to the President nominees for
Renato C. Corona. To compare my father President of the UP Student Council, since months and eleven days – eight months of Misamis Oriental under his own party, After parting with the Cory government Chief Justice and the power of the President
to the senators is an insult and injustice to it was prohibited for him to be elected of which he spent in Camp Crame and as one of two Opposition governors out of on fundamental issues, he had also to to appoint a Chief Justice.
the man. President and at the same time editor-n- ten months in Fort Bonifacio. After his 73 governors in the country. He was one of defend himself as one of the accused in the Bon Adaza, my father, has written four
He must have taken after my paternal chief of the Collegian. release in 1974, he resumed law practice the leading opposition voices in the country 1989 coup before the civilian courts. The books in the past two years – Leaders
grandfather, Pedro A. Adaza, Jr., My father was in his senior year in the in Manila. that Marcos courted him to join the regime case against him was dismissed. Likewise, From Marcos to Arroyo; Presidential
municipal mayor of Catarman, Camiguin, College of Law gunning to graduate When Marcos called for elections in 1978, which, my father, of course, refused, out of he had also to defend himself from several and Emerging Upheavals; Beginning
in Mindanao, where he was mayor for about valedictorian of his class – one of the top as one of the youngest leaders of the national principles and deep-seated conviction. The cases filed by the running dogs of President Hope and Change; and Ideas, Principles
twenty years. He was brilliant, charismatic three fighting for that singular privilege – opposition, he founded a regional political Americans secretly talked to him about Gloria M. Arroyo for conspiracy to commit and Lost Opportunities. He is in the
orator, and a man of achievement. My but he lost out in the end because of his party, the Mindanao Alliance, in Northern running for President against Marcos but a coup, for obstruction of justice and for process of finishing another book, Corona
father tells me that he knew only of one having led a student demonstration, when Mindanao. His party swept the elections in when the Americans learned that he could soliciting millions to finance the supposed Impeachment, which will be out by the end
other person who could compare with his it was not in vogue then, for the purpose Region Ten with the only survivor of the not be anybody’s stooge, they abandoned coup. All the cases were subsequently of the month or the first week of August.
father in oratorical prowess – President of election of a UP president to stabilize Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) ticket - the project. dismissed for lack of evidence. Many people say that my father is
Manuel Acuna Roxas. the academic situation in the UP. The demo Vice-President Emmanuel Pelaez. After a In the snap elections of 1986, he would In the 2010 elections he also featured brilliant, charismatic speaker, a topnotch
My father is brilliant as a student, from led to the cancellation of the UP lantern week, the results were overturned making have been the Vice-Presidential candidate prominently as one of the lawyers for the trial lawyer, a prolific writer, a visionary, a
elementary grades to a few years in college. festival and the advancing of the Christmas Pelaez number one and the true number of the Opposition had Cory Aquino not Opposition questioning the legality of the patriot, a man of character and integrity –
While topping his class from grade 1 to vacation. It achieved its objective - the one winner, Reuben R. Canoy landed come in as presidential candidate. And in elections before congressional committees, and most of all committed to God, country
grade 5 in the Catarman Central School, election of the UP President. number nine. Since my father was number the canvassing of the results of the snap including the National Board of Canvassers, and the people, especially the poor and the
he finished salutatorian only for one single He almost could not take the bar two in the results, he ended up number election in the Parliament, my father almost leading to his filing a case at the Supreme underprivileged.
reason – his father was an enemy of the examinations in 1958 because the UP ten – outside of the magic circle. Marcos, single-handedly fought the Marcos machine Court to declare a failure of election of I am proud to be his son.

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