FORMER Sen. Joker P. Arroyo, who gained fame by defying the martial law government, has died.
He was 88.
Arroyo ended his stint in the Senate in 2013 after serving 12 years.
He was rarely been seen in public since his retirement from politics.
Arroyo was last seen in the Senate to help Makati City Mayor Junjun Binay who was ordered by Senate Blue Ribbon Subcommittee members Antonio Trillanes IV and Aquilino Pimentel III.
Arroyo reportedly died of heart ailment in an undisclosed hospital in the US. Some reports said he died following an unsucessful heart operation.
His family requested media outlets to respect their privacy, noting that the late senator had insisted on being merely a “Citizen Joker” until the day he died.
As a pillar of the Free Legal Assistance Group during the Marcos administration, Arroyo defended then-opposition Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. before a military tribunal that sentenced the latter to death by musketry.
In the aftermath of the 1986 People Power Revolt that catapulted Aquino’s widow Corazon to the presidency three years after Aquino’s airport assassination as he returned from exile, Arroyo served as the neophyte political leader’s executive secretary, helping her face down coup attempts as she steered the country on the difficult transition from two decades of authoritarian rule to democracy.
He later became a Makati City representative for three terms, before being elected senator. He was one of only three senators who voted against convicting Chief Justice Renato C. Corona in May 2012, saying the proceedings and evidence used against the magistrate violated due process and rule of law on many counts.
No pork
The PhilStar report cited his reputation as “the most frugal member of Congress,” something that earned him the moniker “Scrooge of Congress.” It noted how Arroyo never used his P200-million annual Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), or pork-barrel allocation, saving taxpayers P2.4 billion over his 12-year stint in the Senate. He was one of only two senators who did not use their PDAF allocations, the other being Panfilo Lacson.
Reporters who covered him recalled he had only three people on his staff: a driver, a secretary and a legislative assistant.
Journalists covering the House of Representatives and the Senate thus good-naturedly complained often about having to decipher, then encode, his occasional press statements on weekends, in his handwriting. They grumbled aloud to him, but with obvious affection, why he couldn’t hire a staffer to encode and e-mail his consistently sharp and brilliant insights on a wide range of issues, especially on law and governance.
Journalists who covered the Cory Aquino presidency held many fond memories of him, and were pleasantly surprised when he obliged them and went to the reunion of the Malacañang “Brat Pack” several months ago
Arroyo’s legal mettle was put to a test in two impeachment trials: that of President Joseph Estrada in late 2000 and of in 2012. As a House member, Arroyo was one of the lawmakers who signed the endorsement of Estrada’s impeachment, later becoming lead prosecutor for the impeachment trial that, however, was abruptly aborted with the prosecutors’ walkout in January 2001.
In the Corona trial, on the other hand, Arroyo showed his independence in consistently calling out what he considered serious breaches of due process and rule of law, and which could set bad precedents. On May 29, 2012, at least 20 senators voted to convict Corona, except for three: Arroyo, Sen.Miriam Defensor-Santiago and, ironically, the son and namesake of his martial law adversary, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Upon learning of Arroyo’s death, former Sen. Manuel Villar said, “I lost a dear friend and mentor.”
Villar said: “Joker Arroyo loved a good fight—and never runs away from it. “He served his country right. And he deserved a big thank you from all of us. He rose to the occasion when standing up to what is right and just was becoming a hazardous job. He always chose his country over friendship and personal ties. But sometimes, Joker Arroyo could be a loyal friend to a fault.
“But this is where the magnificence of the man lies. He will stick by your side no matter what. “He would be leaving behind a nation that still suffers from the same problems that he liked to rant about with fierce dedication.
“And now that he left us to face all these. Perhaps, the joke is now on us.”
Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, a fellow human-rights lawyer of Arroyo, said: “The death of Joker leaves me with a deep sense of personal loss. The nation has lost a patriot and a true Filipino. I have lost a dear friend, a mentor and a brother. Joker played a big role in rebuilding the nation from the ashes of the dictatorship. And he also helped rebuild Makati from a debt-ridden municipality to a model of public service and pro-poor governance.
“The people of Makati will always be grateful to Joker. The Filipino people will always remember his battles to defend democracy and human rights. I will always keep his memories close to my heart.”
1 comment
he lived a good life