A Brief Account of Marlon J.

Manuel A Profile in Excellence and Integrity in the Service of Others An Honors graduate of the Ateneo de Manila University School of Law and a recipient of the Evelio Javier Leadership Award, Marlon Manuel has 17 years of expertise and experience as a human rights and development lawyer. Since serving as president of the Ateneo Law Student Council in 1993 and placing Fifth in the 1994 Bar Examinations, he continues to exhibit competence, commitment and conviction in his professional endeavors. Manuel was among those who argued before the Supreme Court during oral arguments against Executive Order 464, which prohibited senior executive and military officials from appearing before Congress without the presidents permission; Presidential Proclamation 1017, declaring a state of national emergency; and attempts at Charter Change in 2006. He was also lead counsel of the farmers who walked from Sumilao, Bukidnon to Manila to uphold ownership of their ancestral and agricultural lands under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). He is currently lead counsel for the Philippine Airlines Employees Associations (PALEA) complaint against contractualization, and the case on the revocation of the Stock Distribution Plan of Hacienda Luisita, Inc. and the Temporary Restraining Order on the compulsory acquisition of land to benefit farmers under the agrarian reform law. A Professor of labor law and political/constitutional law at the Ateneo de Manila University School of Law and University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law, Manuel is also the author and co-author of the following publications and papers: Lawyering with the Poor, From the Grassroots: The Justice Reform Agenda of the Poor and Marginalized; The Alternative Law Groups Institutional Framework for Judicial Reform; The Revised Rules on the Right to Self-Organization: A Critique of Department Order No. 40 Series of 2003; Local Representation by 2004: The Local Governance Policy Forums Position on the Pending Bills Providing for the Manner of Election of the Local Sectoral Representatives; Restraining Free Trade Unionism: A Critique of Supreme Court Decisions that Unduly Restrict Labors Exercise of the Right to Self-Organization; Requiem to Speedy Labor Justice, An Analysis of the Effects and Underpinnings of the Supreme Courts Ruling in St. Martin Funeral Home v. NLRC; The IRA Cut: Threat to Local Governance and Democracy; and Popular Sovereignty, A Digest of Legal Provisions and Judicial Decisions on the Peoples Participation in Local Governance. From 2001 until 2007, he served as Executive Director of Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panligal (SALIGAN), a member of the Alternative Law Groups (ALG). Manuel is now the National Coordinator of the ALG, a coalition of 20 non-government organizations that adhere to the principles and values of alternative or social development-oriented law practice. These organizations have programs for legal assistance toward the pursuit of public interest, respect for human rights, and promotion of social justice.

Among such programs under his direction and development are: the Access to Justice by the Poor and Marginalized , which reviews existing laws directly relevant to the poor, especially on women and children in light of human rights and international conventions while identifying necessary amendments; the Defending the Human Rights Defenders Program, wherein human rights advocates vulnerable to violence, harassment, threats, and actual rights violations receive support for local strategies; the Community-Based Dialogue Sessions on Human Rights project, which facilitates participatory discourse and action among the security sector, civil society organizations, and local communities, and the EnDefense Program, a funding mechanism for litigation and related legal actions on the environment. He has also espoused greater transparency and accountability in government through the Supreme Court Appointments Watch, which critically monitors the selection and appointment of the Chief Justice and Associate Justice. With the ALG, Manuel has campaigned for the passage as well as continuing implementation of landmark laws, among them on the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension and Reform, Urban Development and Housing Act, Juvenile Justice Act, Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, and Violence Against Women and Children, which were crafted in direct consultation with affected stakeholders. As current partner of the Dellosa, Mendoza, Bag-ao and Manuel (DMBM) law firm, his litigation practice consists of cases on labor and agrarian reform, criminal cases for rape and other forms of violence against women, and civil cases involving the enforcement of environmental laws. In addition to appearing in regular courts and quasi-judicial bodies, he acted as defense counsel in a case before the Sandiganbayan, where he successfully obtained the acquittal of a municipal mayor wrongfully accused of graft due to efforts against a highly anomalous midnight transaction.