Press Release
December 11, 2008

FRANK CHAVEZ HONORED AS "TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE"

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) on Wednesday evening paid tribute to former Solicitor General Frank Chavez as a defender of human rights and crusader against government corruption and abuses.

Pimentel led a group of senators and practicing lawyers in awarding Chavez the title "Tribune of the People" in recognition of his exceptional feats in using his legal expertise to uphold the rights of the people.

"In the field of law, in the legal arena for the battle to uphold the rights of the people and the cause of freedom, justice and peace, we feel that our honoree's performance is a hard act to follow," he said at the awarding ceremonies held at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan City.

Pimentel said Chavez should be recognized for his good deeds so that other lawyers may hopefully rediscover that "law is not merely a money-making venture, but a means to underscore the meaning of rights and duties of people and more important, give life to the Rule of Law principle in the well-ordering of society."

The "Tribune of the People" Award was conferred on Chavez by the National Union of People's Lawyers led by President Federico Gapuz in collaboration with the Office of Minority Leader Pimentel and Senators Manuel Villar and Francis Pangilinan.

Pimentel said they were honoring Chavez not because he is a perfect human being, noting that his critics find him abrasive aloof, a one-man legal orchestra.

"It is the citation that accompanies this award that gives a glimpse of the kind of lawyering for the people to whom our honoree has devoted a good part of his life and for which he is being recognized," he said.

Chavez was cited for "his relentless crusade against government corruption and expression of the common man by using the tools of law that led to the decisions - among the many he had won for our people - of the Supreme Court and the trial courts."

These decisions include:

1. Acquittal of more than 500 detainees, including victims of the infamous Escalante massacred where innocent people were moved down by persons in authority without provocation during the martial law regime.

2. Nullifying the compromise agreement between the Presidential Commission on Good Government and the Marcoses.

3. Scrapping the joint venture agreement between the Public Estates Authority and the Amari Coastal Bay and Development Corporation.

4. Ruling that there is no constitutional rights to bear arms in the country.

5. Declaring as unconstitutional portions of President Macapagal-Arroyo's Executive Order No. 464 curtailing some basic rights of the people.

6. Upholding the freedom of speech and the press of the people,' even as, in the words of Chief Justice Reynato Puno, he was "left alone to fight" for it.

7. Dismissing the unfounded cases against certain activists typified by the Tagaytay 5 who had languished in jail on charges of sedition and rebellion for more than two years.

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