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Jose Manuel "Chel" Icasiano Diokno (born February 23, 1961) is a Filipino lawyer, educator, and civil rights advocate best known for being one of the Philippines' foremost human rights lawyers. He serves as chairman of the Free Legal Assistance Group and as founding dean of the De La Salle University College of Law. He has also served as special counsel of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.

Early life and education
Diokno was exposed to the harsh reality of the Philippines at a very early age. At the age of 11, he experienced the cruelty of the Martial Law.

This caused Chel to study to become a lawyer, and his expertise in leadership has come a long way ever since. He became the president of a student council in his high school, and he was awarded the Gerardo Roxas Leadership Award for this. He then graduated from UP Diliman with a degree in Philosophy.

After this, he studied law in the United States, where he graduated as magna cum laude. He received the American Jurisprudence Award for Excellence in the Study of Contracts. Although he is also a lawyer in America, Chel has served as a lawyer here in the Philippines since 1987.

Despite the hardship of Martial Law, Chel graduated high school with honors, was president of the La Salle Green Hills student council, and a Gerardo Roxas Leadership Awardee.

In 2009, Diokno founded the De La Salle University College of Law, with the aim of developing leaders who are committed to upholding the rights of every Filipino. He has served as the College's Dean since 2009.

Politics
In the 2019 Senator Elections, he is a senatorial candidate from the Liberal Party

Diokno says that his motivation for deciding to run for senator is that he could not stand idly by while watching everything that was going on in our country as a result of the current administration. He never had any intention of filing a candidacy, given that no one in his family had tried running again since his father's time.

One of the senator's agenda for senatorial is to push for an anti-political dynasty law since this has been the Constitution’s directive to Congress for the past 30 years. Diokno has also opposed the idea of removing term limits of elected government officials here in the Philippines, saying the people should remember what happened during the Martial Law era when late dictator Ferdinand Marcos prolonged his stay in power.

Chel Diokno plans to amend the Witness Protection Program

According to Chel Diokno, an amendment to the current program should be made so that a hearing can be held within six months after whistleblowers are admitted to the program. Within that period, people implicated by the whistleblower should be notified, and the testimony of the whistleblower perpetuated so that the whistleblower can move on with his or her life.

During the Otso Diretso's kickoff campaign in Caloocan on February 12, 2019, Chel Diokno stated that holding corrupt officials accountable is part of his main agenda of judicial reform. His campaign also proposes to have greater transparency and accountability in the judiciary. Diokno stated, "I am in favor of not only giving greater access to Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) but also publishing the SALN of justices the highest court, as well as the issue of allowing the Ombudsman to conduct lifestyle checks on members of the judiciary,”.

Human Rights
Diokno is an avid supporter of causes that promote human rights. He is the son of former senator Jose “Pepe” Diokno, an opposition leader that was detained during martial law. Chel Diokno is also one of the founders of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) that aids victims of human rights violations. As a human rights lawyer, Diokno has condemned, many times, the thousands of killings under administration’s deadly war on drugs. Diokno has already filed a petition against the drug war before the Supreme Court.

Diokno criticized the Duterte Administration for being worse than the Arroyo Administration based on the human rights violations that it committed. Diokno said that while the Duterte and Arroyo administrations have “qualitative similarities” in terms of human rights violations, “mas grabe ang pamahalaan ngayon (this government is worse.)” “If we will count the numbers, this current administration is worse because the Supreme Court has stated that the count until last year 20,322. That number does not include those that have been killed recently. If those are included, that number could easily balloon to 25,000. Some even estimate that it will reach 30,000,” Diokno said.