FLAG marks 50th year, donates human rights book to SC

The Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) presented a commemorative book, Frontliners for Human Rights, to Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo and members of the high bench to cap its 50th anniversary with a courtesy visit to the Supreme Court on 1 September.

The FLAG delegation was led by interim National Chairperson Atty. Theodore O. Te, who handed over the book to the Chief Justice at the Court’s Dignitaries’ Lounge in Manila. Joining Gesmundo were Senior Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen and Associate Justices Amy C. Lazaro-Javier and Jose Midas P. Marquez.

A former SC spokesperson, Te said the volume does more than recount FLAG’s landmark cases. It tells how the law was “tested, stretched, and even abused,” and how the group’s lawyers often stood before the Court to defend the Constitution and the rights of the powerless.

Founded in 1974 by the late Senators Jose W. Diokno, Lorenzo Tañada, Joker Arroyo, and Supreme Court Justice J.B.L. Reyes, FLAG has since grown into a 250-strong network of lawyers handling more than 9,000 cases over five decades. From habeas corpus petitions for desaparecidos during martial law to writs of amparo in recent years, Te said FLAG’s work has always sought to make the law an “instrument of genuine justice.”

Leonen, himself a FLAG lawyer for more than two decades before joining the judiciary, contributed a message in the book describing the group as a “trailblazer” whose history must be retold both in print and through the lived struggles of marginalized communities.

Present from FLAG were Vice Chairpersons Atty. Meinrado P. Paredes (Visayas) and Atty. Manuel P. Quibod (Mindanao), Secretary General Ma. Socorro I. Diokno, and other officers, lawyers, and editorial board members who helped produce the publication.

Frontliners for Human Rights will be launched in a nationwide series of events in Davao, Butuan, Naga, Cagayan de Oro, Baguio, Cebu, and Metro Manila from 22 to 27 September 2025.