Joker Arroyo passes away at 88

Sen. Joker Arroyo, 88,  passed away, his close friends and colleagues in the  Senate confirmed yesterday.

He died in the United States but the cause and circumstances were not immediately clear as family members were not ready to comment.

“Yes, confirmed,” a friend and former colleague at the Senate said in a text message to reporters on Wednesday.

Another senator, Sonny Angara, posted on Twitter Wednesday morning about Arroyo’s death.

“RIP ex-Senator Joker Arroyo, Dios Mabalos,” Angara said in his post at 8:31 a.m.

Arroyo, a human rights lawyer under the Marcos dictatorship, was a Makati congressman  for 9 years, and a senator for 12 years.

He served as Executive Secretary of President Corazon Aquino from 1986 to 1987.

A Rappler report citing an unnamed senator as source said the Arroyo family left for the United States last week, and was to stay there from 3 weeks to a month.

Arroyo is survived by wife Felicitas Aquino, with whom he has a daughter, his namesake Joker; and two daughters with his first wife Odelia Gregorio.

In a statement issued later, Angara described Arroyo as one of the “best and finest” trial lawyers.

“For the younger generation, who may not be aware of Senator Joker’s contribution to nation building, they should know that he fought for the restoration of democracy in the Philippines, he fought in the courts and in the streets for the restoration of our civil and political rights which we enjoy today,” he said.

“Farewell to one of the best and finest trial lawyers that we have ever met,” Angara added.

During  the Senate trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona, Arroyo and Marcos, along with Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, voted to acquit him.

Arroyo was a three-term congressman of the 1st District of Makati from 1992 to 1998 before he became senator from 2001 to 2013.

Cebu  lawyer Democrito Barcenas who belonged to the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) founded by Arroyo and other lawyers  during the Marcos regime, said he was “saddened and shocked” by news of his death.

“Although we disagreed  on many issues like his defense of former president Gloria Arroyo and his vote of acquittal of Chief Justice Corona, I still consider him a brother in the struggle against the Marcos regime,” said Barcenas, former political detainee.

While in Congress, Arroyo remained an independent. He never traveled abroad on government money and was known to have a perfect attendance record for nine years from the time he was elected up to the end of his term, according to his biography posted at the official website of the Senate.

Arroyo was among those who questioned before the Supreme Court the ratification of the Marcos-dictated 1973 Constitution; Amendment 6 that empowered President Marcos to exercise law making powers alongside the Batasang Pambansa; and the power of military tribunals to try civilians.