Inside Philippine politics & beyond

Estelito Mendoza: Champion for “the wrong side”

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By Raïssa Robles

Estelito Mendoza picWhen obscenely rich and powerful Filipinos get into legal trouble, who do they turn to?

Estelito Mendoza.

When then President Joseph Estrada faced a Senate impeachment trial, who defended him?

Estelito Mendoza.

When former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently tried to skip the country ahead of an imminent electoral sabotage case, who went on her behalf to urge the Supreme Court to nullify a Watch List Order against her?

None other than Estelito Mendoza.

When cronies of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos needed to hold off government litigation, who helped them hang on to their ill-gotten wealth? You know the name.

Estelito Mendoza candidly conceded last year that he was always lawyering for “the wrong side”.

Still I find particularly rich in irony  the sight of Estelito Mendoza standing up for the human rights of his client, Gloria Arroyo.

It’s ironic because during Martial Law, Mendoza was the dictator’s legal henchman who helped the regime trample human rights.

Here is what Mendoza recently told the Supreme Court about the Watch List Order issued against his client Arroyo. He said the WLO violated Section 6 of the Bill of rights which states:

Neither shall the right to travel be impaired except in the interest of national security, public safety, or public health, as may be provided by law.

According to Mendoza, Arroyo –

is repeatedly being and continuously being subjected by the respondent DOJ Secretary (Leila de Lima) to successive WLOs, thereby unduly restricting and impairing her constitutionally-guaranteed right to travel indefinitely.

Mendoza wasn’t so solicitous and caring of human rights back in his Martial Law days. He was the solicitor general from 1972 to 1986. and he always won before the subservient Supreme Court.

That is to say, he won case after case which violated the rights of all Filipinos, except those in power of course.

His biggest landmark win was Javellana vs the Executive Secretary – where the Supreme Court ruled – as Estelito Mendoza had argued – that Marcos’ 1973 Constitution was ratified by the people through Citizens’ Assemblies. See my story entitled: Thank you Oliver Lozano for raising Supreme Court’s disgraceful past

Now, if you look at the Bill of Rights in Marcos’ 1973 Constitution, it looks as liberal as our present Bill of Rights.

But the truth was, we were not at all free during Martial Law.

On paper, we were free; but in reality our rights to travel, to free speech and press, to be secure in our persons and homes – were all restricted, thanks to Estelito Mendoza et al.

Estelito Mendoza was one of the top government officials who made sure to place legal handcuffs on our basic rights as a people.

One example: Ferdinand Marcos’ issuance of the Presidential Commitment Order (PCO) contained in Proclamation No 2045 “Proclaiming the termination of the State of Martial Law throughout the Philippines.”

This paper-lifting of Martial Law in 1981 had a section where Marcos gave himself the power to issue a “Presidential Commitment Order” or PCO – which in effect continued his Martial Law powers.

Simply put, the PCO allowed Marcos and his Martial Law machinery controlled by his military chief General Fabian Ver and his Defense Minister and Martial Law Administrator Juan Ponce Enrile to arrest without a warrant and detain indefinitely without charges anyone they believed was “thinking” of overthrowing the Marcos government.

Yes, they were mind readers. They believed they could enter people’s dreams and thoughts and if they thought you were about to commit subversion, you could be picked up so that you could be prevented from committing it.

Neat, huh.

This is contained in this book which I found in my late lawyer father’s possession:

Estelito-Mendoza-book-on-PC

As you can see, the book contains a piece by SolGen Estelito Mendoza vigorously defending the PCO after the Supreme Court had issued a landmark controversial ruling upholding the PCO in the case of Padilla and Morales.

The two were both detained using PCOs. By the way, Morales here is the same Horacio “Boy” Morales, Estrada’s former agrarian reform secretary, who was recently taken ill after a golf match.

In his piece, Estelito Mendoza argued that only the President who has full grasp of the national security situation can decide whose rights should be curtailed further. Estelito Mendoza concluded that:

Our Constitution wisely and with foresight reposed full faith and confidence on our Chief Executive in the matter of protecting our individual liberty, no less than preserving our national security.

What’s this? Back when the president was a thieving dictator, Mendoza argued that the constitution reposed full faith and confidence in his ability to protect Filipinos’ liberties? But now that the president is someone named Aquino, Mendoza is arguing that the president is, oh horror, violating the right to travel of his client, one Gloria Arroyo.

Last year, when Estelito Mendoza was asked about his sordid role in Marcos’ dictatorship and why he kept defending villains in litigation, he said:

I’m a lawyer. I don’t choose what cases I have. Those in the wrong side are most deserving of having lawyers.

I’m just doing my job and that’s what I have been trained for I have been at this for many years. I find great satisfaction performing my duty because I contribute to the administration of justice. I can assure you that I win my cases because I work hard.

You may not be aware of it but Estelito Mendoza recently won for Gloria Arroyo a plunder case involving the 2007 alleged anomalous sale of the old Iloilo airport. Last month, this case was thrown out.

If Marcos cronies Lucio Tan and Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco are both on Forbes’ Rich List today, they have Estelito Mendoza to thank for it.

Mendoza – and for a long time with the help of lawyer Gilberto Teodoro – kept the government from getting back the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth which even the widow Imelda Marcos claimed was secretly entrusted to Lucio Tan and Eduardo Cojuangco.

What recently came to light was Mendoza’s reach and influence, which continues to extend all the way to the Supreme Court.

Last month, the Supreme Court recalled a “final” decision which had ordered Lucio Tan’s Philippine Airlines to reinstate 1,400 flight attendants. It turned out that the dramatic reversal occurred after Estelito Mendoza wrote the Supreme Court questioning the reinstatement ruling.

I wonder how many more Estelito Mendoza letters have swayed the Supreme Court in their decisions. They’re not telling.

Another Supreme Court landmark ruling that favored Estelito Mendoza and his big bucks client Danding Cojuangco was issued under Chief Justice Reynato Puno’s watch. Years ago, when I interviewed Chief Justice Puno I had the impression of talking to a very decent and upright man. He told me in passing then that he used to work under Estelito Mendoza when the latter was Marcos’ SolGen.

It was for this reason that I felt very sad when I read the Supreme Court ruling in 2009 allowing San Miguel Corporation to convert 24% of the sequestered common shares into preferred shares. By that act, the Supreme Court denied the coconut farmers who were claiming the shares their voting rights and their board seats. Puno had cast a vote favoring San Miguel.

I can think of two other instances when Estelito Mendoza has had an impact on national issues.

One was in 2009 when his opinion was sought on the Spratlys island dispute. As the only living member of Marcos’ team that negotiated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Estelito Mendoza advised Congress that the country should tone down its position on the Spratlys. He said those islands should not be made part of the country’s archipelagic base because the Philippines did not have the military might to defend such a position.

In the light of what’s happening today, I wonder if that kind of early capitulation was the right approach to the dispute.

Another time Estelito Mendoza played a significant role was early last year, when in his capacity as a “former Solicitor General”, he asked the Supreme Court to waive the ban on midnight appointments so President Gloria Arroyo could appoint her third Supreme Court Chief Justice even after a new President had been elected by the people.

It’s quite interesting that Mendoza used his being a “former Solicitor General” – a post he held 25 years ago – to insert himself in the issue. I wonder who his real client really was here – Gloria Arroyo or a member of the Judicial Bar Council.

Again, in this case, he won before the Supreme Court.

I’ve interviewed Estelito Mendoza, a Harvard law school graduate, several times. He’s suave, even-tempered and brilliant in oral arguments. He can make white look black and vice versa. Plus he has a grateful army of former students, colleagues and subordinates scattered far and wide in the Philippine judicial and legal system.

And that’s why he’s Gloria Arroyo’s lawyer.

Comments

  1. Raissa – I have seen Titong Mendoza and Serafin Cuevas in action at the Sandiganbayan during Cory’s term. They truly are brilliant and made minced meat of the government lawyers. They came prepared and made the trial looked like a classroom for the prosecution. Sad they always defended the ‘wrong’ side!

  2. hindi naman po nakapagtataka. In world full of birds of prey, estelito is the eagle. And you don’t need to rack your brains for their motivation. And just to add some bile in your soup, you probably pay more taxes than estelito, or even the average, run-of-the-mill lawyer

    • all along, I thought he was the vulture who feasts on the decaying parts of society.
      My bad.

  3. You should have seen how many of the sc justices then and probably now, make a mad scramble out of their seats in their hallowed chambers every time atty. Mendoza visits the halls of the sc to greet and pay their respect to him! This just evidences the great amount of influence he wields over the members of the court.
    Also, he has cornered through his travel agency, all foreign, maybe including domestic, travels of the justices and maybe all other officials of the sc. I just don’t know if it is still the practice now but I am definite it was, during VJ puno’s time.

  4. Hail to Estelito Mendoza, legal counsel extraordinaire to the who’s who of Philippine Super Crooks and concurrently Supreme Arbiter of the Philippine Judicial System! If there is any single individual who has perverted Philippine jurisprudence, he’s the man. I hope he and his entire progeny rot in eternal damnation!

  5. Ms. Raissa Robles’s objectivity of Estelito Mendoza’s superior legal mind in Philippine settings at its finest.

    Thank you Ms. Robles for the well researched subject. I can very well comprehend your write up in a very simple yet intelligent use of words. For a common “tao” like me, you have conveyed your mind effectively.

    • You’re welcome, Antonio.

      Do come and join in the discussions here in Cyber Plaza Miranda.

      • Brilliant or cunning.

        He was at the recent UP Forum on the West Philippine Sea and I heard a portion of what he said (kung tama pagkarinig ko). That he was with Senator Tolentino and Abad Santos (?) and be made mention of influencing the group of 70 developing nations to side with them on the issue of exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

  7. Yes please blame this lawyer – for a man possessing such great talent and resposibility, he has very little by way of moral integrity

  9. Raissa…I did not know that you’ve worked on “Stiletto”” Mendoza already. I am a relatively new comer to your blog, as you know. Thanks for reissuing this piece. I will reread to really imbibe. I recall a couple of weeks ago that I sent in a comment re coming up with an investigative report on what this SolGen was all about and his impact upon the administration of justice in the country. I urge you to expand this into booklength…..it will be a worthy addition to Filipiniana. Please. Thanks. And as always, please accept my high esteem. Buddy

  10. Pls dont blame the lawyer. He is only doing his best to win a case assigned to him. If there is someone to blame it is the opposing lawyer for not being good enough to stop Mendoza

    • As always,malicious Raissa.her imputations are quite clear, belittling Atty.Mendoza’s lawyering prowess then picturing him as a bagman to bribe the court.

      • Oooh, you’re the one imputing that.

        I never said that.

        Why did you say he’s a bag man when that is not in my piece?

        • If they just read Thomas Jefferson’s commentaries on the SUPREME COURT of the United States of which our own SC was copied from, they would know that the Supreme Court justices are sappers and miners that continuously work underground to undermine the confederated fabric of the republic. This is one of the most dangerous branch of government, next to banking institutions. Read the wisdom of the ages before you try to defend a corrupt court.

  11. What’s more, the brilliant Estelito Mendoza told the simple employee of Singson that she ate the ice tea. She had to tell him she did not eat the ice tea, she drank it. Wish I could find the song about it.

  12. NOT ONLY DOES “… Mendoza’s reach and influence, which continues to extend all the way to the Supreme Court.”, but now it has also reached the Sandiganbayan.

    “After nearly 25 years of litigation, the Sandiganbayan has dismissed the ill-gotten wealth complaint filed by the government against business tycoon Lucio Tan,” a Marcos Crony.

    Did a letter take ‘nearly 25 years’ to arrive or was there a better one that a ‘decision was issued last June 11 [2012] on Civil Case No. 0005.’

    What if an ill-gotten wealth case is lodged against the Marcos widow, her children for unexplained wealth? WHO THEY’RE GONNA CALL?

    SINCE WHEN DID LUCIO TAN become a Doctor?

    Ill-gotten wealth case vs Lucio Tan dismissed

    by Ira Pedrasa, ABS-CBNnews.com
    Posted at 06/13/2012 4:58 PM
    Updated as of 06/13/2012 5:38 PM

    Mendoza asks gov’t to allow Allied Bank-PNB merger

    MANILA, Philippines – After nearly 25 years of litigation, the Sandiganbayan has dismissed the ill-gotten wealth complaint filed by the government against business tycoon Lucio Tan, his lawyer said.

    In a statement, Estelito Mendoza said: “It is Dr. Tan’s hope that with this decision of the Sandiganbayan, the PCGG [Presidential Commission on Good Government] will relent in its effort to lay claim to his assets and in restricting the exercise of full rights over those properties.”

    The decision was issued last June 11 on Civil Case No. 0005. The 5th division of the anti-graft court said the PCGG does not have evidence to forfeit the tycoon’s assets.

    The government started sequestering his shares of stock in major corporations in 1986.

    The anti-graft court, however, nullified the writs of sequestration separately in 1993 and 2006, saying there was no prima facie evidence to consider them as ill-gotten.

    The nullification of the sequestration was affirmed subsequently by the Supreme Court.

    Thus, “with the decision of the Sandiganbayan on the merits of Civil Case No. 0005, the illegality of the limitation by the PCGG of the exercise of the rights of Dr. Tan over his assets through the years has received confirmation,” Mendoza said.

    He said, however, that despite the explicit resolutions, the “PCGG continues to limit the exercise of Dr. Tan over his properties, the latest, being its opposition to the merger of Allied Bank and Philippine National Bank simply because the Allied Bank shares of stock of Dr. Tan are among the alleged ill-gotten wealth of Dr. Tan subject matter of Civil Case No. 0005.”

    Mendoza said that with the decision of the Sandiganbayan, the “Central Bank, the PDIC and the SEC will see their way clear to expeditiously give their respective approval to the merger of Allied Bank and PNB. The delay has not only been prejudicial to the stockholders but to the banking system and the economy of the country.”

    • @Mel…how do the public really feel that the “prosecution” of this Tan case was handled “properly?” From the newsreports, some vital documents were allegedly “lost” by Mr. Jovita Salonga. How did that happen? Were those documents relevant to this case of Dr. Tan? Acc to the Sandiganbayan court, prosec even failed to present “Secondary” evidence on the causes of action, since it did not have “original copies” as primary evidence on hand. Why did the prosec fail if they had years to prepare for such secondary evidence presentation? Ano ba ang mga abogado ‘o prosec sa Ombudsman or PCGG? Competent ba talaga sila or not? Or it’s just “win some lose some?”

  13. Lawyers can bend the truth only as far as the guy on the bench allows him to. The high-priced lawyers are those who can provide the guy on the bench a way to bend the truth LEGALLY.

  14. I believe he is a hardworking lawyer with strong ties to the most influential people in the Philippines. You can not say he is on the wrong side when he practically saved his clients from being wrongfully accused. I think the author is acting like a drama queen.
    When you think about human rights, you only think of the poor people. Rich or wealthy people have rights, too.

    • Oooh, that reasoning sounds like Imelda Marcos, the wealthy congressmen and the likes of Bernie Madoff.

      You’re in the wrong country, Sarah, where the rich have all the rights although they are very few in number. While the poor have very little.

      So, to equalize or balance the rights, you do have to think of the vast poor majority.

      It’s simple math but deadly and complicated politics.

      • Who was it who said? “Those who have less in life should have more in laws”. Or something like that. Sarah, are you reading this?

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