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Choose Paredes, a human rights lawyer who returned his personal Golden Pillar of Regulation award in protest, tells the Built-in Bar of the Philippines that he ‘didn’t consider’ that co-awardee Rodrigo Duterte upheld the beliefs of justice, integrity, and the rule of legislation
Retired Choose Meinrado P. Paredes, a revered human rights lawyer, died on Saturday, July 11, in Cebu Metropolis. He was 79.
The trigger was problems from interstitial lung illness and pneumonia.
Paredes was the choose who returned the Golden Pillar of Regulation Award conferred to him by the Built-in Bar of the Philippines (IBP) after studying that former President Rodrigo Duterte obtained the identical recognition.
In a letter addressed to IBP nationwide president Allan Panolong dated October 10, 2025, Choose Paredes mentioned that whereas he was honored to obtain the award, he determined to return the plaque as he “didn’t consider” that Duterte upheld the beliefs of justice, integrity, and the rule of legislation. He mentioned that Duterte’s regime was “characterised by the rule of the gun, not of legislation.”
“This isn’t a protest however an expression of disappointment and disgust. I’m doing this in solidarity with the victims and their kinfolk of human rights violations,” he mentioned in his letter to the IBP, returning the award.
Earlier than becoming a member of the judiciary, Paredes earned a status as a brave lawyer who stood for human rights and democratic ideas throughout probably the most tough durations in Philippine historical past. He suffered detention for a yr throughout Martial Regulation due to his activism.
He established the Free Authorized Help Group (FLAG) in Cebu within the mid-Seventies and helped set up different FLAG chapters everywhere in the Visayas. He defended political prisoners along with former senators Jose “Pepe” Diokno, founding father of FLAG, Lorenzo “Ka Tanny” Tañada, and different authorized luminaries who actively opposed the Marcos dictatorship.
He was one of many legal professionals who filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus within the disappearance of Fr. Rudy Romano, CSsR, and Levi Ybanez. The 2 have been kidnapped by suspected navy intelligence brokers 41 years in the past on July 11, 1985, coinciding with the loss of life of Choose Paredes.
He was additionally one of many legal professionals of CERNET 27, a gaggle of improvement employees who have been accused by the Nationwide Process Pressure to Finish Native Communist Armed Battle (NTF-ELCAC) of financing terrorist organizations. The case was dismissed with finality on July 10, in the future earlier than Choose Paredes handed, with the dismissal of the Movement for Reconsideration filed by state prosecutors.
Choose Paredes, who hailed from Aurora, Zamboanga del Sur, by no means wavered in his conviction that the legislation should at all times function a protect for the powerless and a restraint towards the abuse of energy. Even after democracy was restored, he continued to talk publicly concerning the significance of remembering the teachings of Martial Regulation and safeguarding the constitutional rights of each Filipino.
As a choose of the Regional Trial Court docket in Cebu Metropolis, together with his service as Govt Choose, he turned identified for his integrity, independence, and dedication to the honest administration of justice. He refused to obtain money stipends and allowances from the Cebu Provincial Authorities and the Cebu Metropolis Authorities.
After retiring from the bench, he continued instructing future generations of legal professionals, sharing not solely his in depth data of remedial legislation and constitutional ideas but in addition the moral duties that accompany the follow of legislation.
Choose Paredes can be remembered not just for his service on the bench but in addition for his unwavering dedication to justice, human dignity, and the Structure.
In a speech he delivered in 2019 earlier than the UP Cebu Political Science Society, Choose Paredes exhorted: “To the younger generations who haven’t skilled the rule of the gun, my message is: Defend democracy and don’t permit dictatorship to reign once more.”
Choose Paredes was married to Jane Carabuena, a former broadcast journalist and communications skilled. They’ve two daughters. – Rappler.com
