It's a sad month for AFAD Chairperson Edcel Lagman.
On February 6, 2001, his youngest brother and prominent
labor leader Filemon, was gunned down by assassin beneath the steps of the
Bahay ng Alumni (Alumni House) at the University of the Philippines
(UP) in Diliman, Quezon City. Occurring barely a month after People Power
II, the event became the first politically-motivated killing under the
presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
For Lagman, this is the second ruthless blow dealt to
his family as a result of his brothers' radical involvement in the mass
movement. In 1997, his brother, Hermon, a militant labor and human rights
lawyer, was abducted by military operatives. He has not surfaced since
then.
The Lagman brothers all grew up in Tabaco, Albay in the
economically depressed Bicol region. Incensed by Marcos' declaration of
Martial Law in 1972, Edcel and Hermon used their legal skills to protect
workers' rights and fight the dictatorship while Filemon dropped out of
college to join the revolutionary underground. While the two Lagman
lawyers excelled in their law practice, the yougner Filemon, now known as
"Popoy", devised the concept of "noise barrgae" as a means of resistance
and was first utilized in 1978, on the eve of the election for the
rubberstamp Interim Batasang Pambansa (National Legislature).
Immediately after Marcos' downfall, Edcel Lagman was
appointed by then President Corazon Aquino as Undersecretary of the
Department of Budget and Management. In 1987, he won a seat in the House
of Representatives for the first district of Albay - a position which he
held for 11 straight years. During the Eight Congress, he assumed the
Chairmanship of the House of Committee on Agrarian Reform and Vice
Chairman of the powerful Committee on appropriations. In the Tenth
Congress, he became Senior Minority Floor Leader and Chairman of the
Committee on Justice. Last year, he was elected as AFAD Chairperson and
played a pivotal role during the Asian -Latin American Lawyer's Meeting.
During the historic impeachment trial of former
President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, Edcel Lagman volunteered to be one of
the private prosecutors, despite the affiliation of his party the Laban
ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP/Struggle of the Democratic Filipino)
with the ruling coalition. He declared that:
"Like a malignant tumor which has to excised or a
malevolent spirit which has to be exorcised, the President has to go in
order to cleanse the Presidency, regain the people's confidence in
governance and allow the economy to grow and recover."
He stressed that the ouster of Estrada does not signal
the end of the people's struggle for social justice and enduring freedom.
He vowed before Filemon's lifeless body that he would continue his
struggle to its triumphant end.
