Human rights lawyer Chel Diokno has officially announced his intention to run for office in the 2022 elections, days after the 1Sambayan coalition named him on a shortlist of viable candidates for the country’s top offices.
In a statement posted on his official Facebook account, Diokno said he was certain to run, although “[i]t’s difficult now to make a final decision about what position.” He added that he “never aspired to run for President or VP, which 1Sambayan has nominated me for. But I think it’s important that ordinary Filipinos and the youth have a voice.”
The chairman of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) made clear that he was going to run on a platform of judicial reform, saying that he knew “how to fix the legal system.” The longtime human rights lawyer was also the founding dean at the De La Salle University College of Law, and the executive director of the Diokno Law Center.
Chel Diokno ran for a Senate seat in 2019 as part of the Ocho Diretso opposition slate, but had not won a seat. Since then, he has been fondly branded as the ‘woke lolo’, owing to his deft handling of issues on social media.
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