A mentor to pupils who became primary Filipino legal professionals, Dean Merlin Magallona is remembered as ‘one of the greatest Supreme Court docket justices we did not have’
Filipino lawyer Merlin Magallona, regarded a luminary of international regulation, has died at the age of 87, the College of the Philippines (UP) introduced on Sunday, January 2.
Magallona died on Saturday in accordance to UP. Magallona was a former dean of the UP University of Regulation.
Tributes poured from the Philippine authorized sector on Sunday, remembering Magallona as a lawful legend who had taught generations of Filipino lawyers equally inside of and outside the house UP’s revered Malcolm Corridor.
“He was the most bewildering and at the same time entertaining professor we ever experienced,” stated former supreme courtroom spokesperson and human legal rights lawyer Ted Te.
Retired International Prison Court (ICC) choose Raul Pangalangan claimed Magallona was “a mentor and trainer to several worldwide legislation scholars in the Philippines” and that his “intellectual affect will dwell on through his pupils and his writings.”
Outstanding contribution
Magallona contributed to quite a few of the Philippines’ worldwide regulation milestones, which include representing the place at the United Nations Diplomatic Convention on the establishment of the ICC.
Ambassador Eduardo Malaya credits Magallona for generating leaps in the preservation of Philippine legal rights in elements of North Borneo (Sabah). Magallona served as an an Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs from 2001 to 2002.
Magallona is also remembered for getting a principled stand from US armed forces exercises in the Philippines write-up 9/11, a thorny problem in the Arroyo authorities back then. Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo backed the deployment of American troops to the Philippines, even though then-Vice President Teofisto Guingona – a concurrent international affairs secretary – opposed it.
Malaya claimed it was Magallona who backed Guingona in preventing for independent foreign coverage. Guingona and Magallona resigned from the DFA in July 2002, a transfer observed as a protest to Arroyo then.
“Our nation is lucky to have experienced the insights of our honoree on numerous crossroad concerns,” said Malaya in a 2018 testimonial toast for Magallona.
Magallona is the title situation of the oft-cited Magallona vs Govt Secretary, in which the former dean took on the Arroyo government for passing RA 9522, which modified the country’s archipelagic baselines. They missing that petition.
The ponente of that circumstance, previous justice and staunch China critic Antonio Carpio, claimed the Magallona petition “opened my eyes – that we could defend and maintain our sovereign legal rights in the West Philippine Sea as a result of the Rule of Law by questioning before an UNCLOS tribunal the validity of China’s historic claim beneath its 9-sprint line.”
“Dean Merlin Magallona’s legacy lives on in his former learners, colleagues, and fellow advocates for nationalistic intercontinental law, who go on the fight to protect and maintain Philippine sovereignty in the world arena,” reported the college.
‘One of the finest SC justices we did not have’
Magallona is “one of the ideal Supreme Courtroom Justices we did not have,” reported his previous university student Luie Guia, former commissioner of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
He was nominated for the Supreme Courtroom but did not get to sit on the bench. Via the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA), Magallona aided the Supreme Courtroom by schooling judges in worldwide and human rights legislation.
“He was a colorful male, profoundly insightful but also deeply personal and relational,” explained Te, and added “the forest is barer at the second since a excellent tree has fallen.”
Supreme Courtroom Justice Marvic Leonen, himself a former UP Legislation Dean and Magallona’s college student, explained of his professor: “You have shaped quite a few of us. Thank you and we carry on with your legacy.” – Rappler.com
