Free Legal Assistance Group

FLAG was founded in 1974 by Sen. Jose W. Diokno,[10] Sen. Lorenzo M. Tañada[11] and Atty. Joker Arroyo[12] during the martial law era under the infamous ex-President Ferdinand Marcos. After Diokno was released from prison at Fort Bonifacio, he immediately thought of creating a law firm that would support human rights victims through a new and innovative method called developmental legal aid, which he even promoted further by giving allowances to clients without any financial means. FLAG has defended farmers, similar victims of agrarian reform, as well as activists who were victims of paramilitary abuses.[13]

According to Atty. Ted Te, the popularization of developmental legal aid at this time eventually laid the foundations for the passing of new laws, particularly the Community Legal Aid Service (CLAS) Rule. The CLAS Rule requires those who have passed the bar and signed the Roll of Attorneys in any particular year after the Rule’s effectivity – but specifically, those who passed the 2017 Bar examinations and beyond, and were subsequently admitted to the bar – to render 120 hours of legal service as stipulated by the law. This must be done within their first year of admission to the bar or else they will risk receiving sanctions.[14] At the height of martial law, the FLAG firm led by Atty. Diokno, who is called the father of human rights, handled over 90 percent of human rights cases in the country, documenting torture, summary executions, and other abuses during that period.[15]

Kuratong Baleleng was once the largest syndicate in the country when the national crime rate was at its peak.[16] FLAG later became the chief prosecutor in the 1995 Kuratong Baleleng rubout case. At that time, eleven members of the organized syndicate Kuratong Baleleng were killed by the forces of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission, led by then-police officer Panfilo Lacson. FLAG prosecuted 27 police officers involved in this case at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court but to no avail.[17] FLAG immediately appealed to the High Tribunal to remand the case to the trial court once more in order to present new evidence against Lacson, inter alia. Later on May 2, 2008, the Supreme Court finally resolved to consider the appeal.

Atty. Chel Diokno helped prosecute then-President Joseph Estrada during his impeachment case from 2000 to 2001, which led to the Second EDSA Revolution that had him ousted and had Vice-president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo inaugurated as the 14th president. Later on however, former Pres. Arroyo, who was the daughter of the ninth president Diosdado Macapagal, would be involved in a corruption scandal with Chinese telecom firm ZTE. Atty. Diokno would aid whistleblower Jun Lozada as part of his legal counsel during his court hearings against the administration.[18]

Around the same time in 2007, Atty. Diokno along with fellow FLAG lawyers Ted Te and Ricardo A. Sunga III, petitioned and were granted by the Supreme Court to issue Writs of Amparo for leftist activists Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo, two brothers who were allegedly tortured by the military under the Arroyo administration.[19] FLAG also represented the media in a petition against the Arroyo administration. The case brought together members of ABS-CBN, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Probe Productions, Newsbreak, and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, among others for allegedly being rounded up for their "illegal" coverage of the Manila Peninsula Siege that tried to force the president to resign.[20][21]

Pres. Arroyo would leave office with record-low approval ratings and was later imprisoned during the administration of the 15th President, Benigno Aquino III.[22]

In 2017, FLAG lawyers Atty. Chel Diokno, Atty. Arno Sanidad, and former president of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) Atty. Alexander Padilla became the legal counsel of retired police officer SPO3 Arturo Lascañas, a former officer of Duterte's Davao Death Squad.[23] Lascañas admitted to the court that he had to kill 300 civilians under Duterte, then the mayor of Davao City. The participation of FLAG in Lascañas's affidavit helped create credibility and exposed much of the controversial dealings concurrently happening in Davao City under the Duterte political family's watch. The case and its resulting revelation of Duterte's crimes became renowned through headlines all over top media groups around the world, which was brought to the attention of the International Criminal Court (ICC).[24]

In 2020, Atty. Diokno protested against the passing of the Anti-Terror Law, which was approved by the 16th President, Rodrigo Duterte. This would arrest those who are deemed terrorists by the government. Atty. Diokno quipped that not just terrorists would be arrested from this law but possibly any protestor could be harmed. He then questioned the Supreme Court on this decision. On July 23, FLAG, together with fellow columnists, statesmen, and political detainees issued the legal challenge G.R. No. 252741 against Anti-Terror Council member and Duterte's Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on the grounds and rationality of the signed law. Among the provisions in the law being questioned were Section 29 on detention without judicial warrant of arrest in which a suspect can be arrested even without a warrant of arrest and detained for up to 24 days. This has been compared to the time when soon-to-be-ousted President Ferdinand Marcos removed the writ of habeas corpus in 1971. This has led to arrests without reason or without warrant, and has incited massive protests in the process.[25]

The Anti-Terror law has been denounced as being too vague and therefore very dangerous in its potential for wide-scale abuse. FLAG served as the leader and legal council of the petition, together with at least 14 other early petitions coming from all different sectors: Rappler and Maria Ressa (whom FLAG defended a few years prior to the passage of the Anti-Terror Law), the National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL), senators such as Leila de Lima and Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan, labor groups and activists, and other members of the media and government.[26]

Among the main objectives of FLAG are:

1. To promote civil and political rights through activism
2. Handle cases of the urban poor, indigenous peoples, workers, students, NPA members, and other disenfranchised sectors of Philippine society
3. To encourage developmental legal advocacy which may remedy injustice not merely by enforcing the law, but also by changing the law and underlying social structures that perpetrate or sustain injustice and inhibit development

The law firm and non-governmental organization (NGO) is headed by its chairman. The current chairman is Atty. Jose Manuel "Chel" Diokno. Assisting the chairman is the secretary-general. The incumbent secretary-general is Atty. Maria Socorro "Cookie" Diokno.[27] For regional cases, the regional coordinator helps in communications and managing the different logistics throughout several districts and cities. The present Manila regional coordinator is Atty. Ted Te.[28] Mary Kathryn Sison is the network coordinator in charge of monitoring oversights in Metro Manila.[29]

In 1993, FLAG created the Economic, Social, and Cultural (ESC) Rights Program to properly design a framework that would government accountability over human suffering violations regarding ESC rights. The objective of the FLAG program serves to ultimately create a suitable Philippine system thay may also serve as a model for other developing countries with numerous human rights violations springing from socioeconomic causes. Countries that have been studied and formally addressed by FLAG include Thailand, different Southeast Asian countries, and parts of Africa. Within its ESC Rights Program, FLAG has established two technical core groups, one on the right to housing and the on the right to education. Each group consists of academicians and representatives of NGOs and public organizations, development organizations, professional associations, industries, and selected government departments. Consultations between the two working groups are promoted to share results, seek confirmation, resolve conflicts, and integrate work output. FLAG has established other right-specific working groups since that time, such as the right to health and food, beginning the last quarter of 1997.[30] The core functions of the ESC Rights Program are:

1. To define the rights of survival in terms of their core content
2. To develop legal standards for the rights of survival
3. If the rights of survival are, realizable imperatives rather than development objectives, the working groups must lay out clear and precise state obligations under these rights
4. Given the establishment of standards and obligations, indicators need to be developed so that systematic monitoring can take place
5. For working groups to delineate and outline ways to make the rights of survival legally enforceable and justiciable