Chel Diokno
Jose Manuel Tadeo "Chel" Icasiano Diokno is a Filipino politician and lawyer who has served as a representative for Akbayan Party-list since 2025.
Diokno is the son of former Senator Jose W. Diokno. He studied law at the University of the Philippines College of Law and Northern Illinois University in the United States, graduating in 1986 and passing the Philippine Bar Examinations in 1988. For much of his legal career, Diokno has been affiliated with the Free Legal Assistance Group, a nationwide organization of human rights lawyers. He became its chairman in 2003 and held the role until 2025. In 2009, he founded the Tañada-Diokno School of Law as the De La Salle University College of Law and served as its inaugural dean until 2019. In 2022, he became the chairman of the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation.
Diokno unsuccessfully sought election to the Senate of the Philippines twice, running in 2019 under Otso Diretso and 2022 under Team Robredo–Pangilinan. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 2025 as the first nominee of Akbayan, which won three seats in an upset victory.
Early life and education
Jose Manuel Tadeo Icasiano Diokno was born on February 23, 1961, in Pasay, Rizal. He was the eighth of ten children to human rights lawyer Jose W. Diokno, who later serve as a senator, and activist Carmen Icasiano. He is the great-grandson of Ananías Diokno, a leader of the Visayans during the Philippine–American War, and the grandson of Ramón Diokno, a nationalist who served as Senator and Supreme Court Associate Justice. His sister, Maris Diokno, went on to serve as a senior administrator in the University of the Philippines system and chairperson of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.Diokno completed his elementary and secondary education at La Salle Green Hills in Mandaluyong. As a student, he was the student council leader and a member of the varsity basketball team. He developed an interest in cycling and aikido, where he earned a black belt.
In 1982, Diokno earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from the University of the Philippines Diliman. He studied law at the University of the Philippines College of Law for one year before transferring to Northern Illinois University in the United States, where he graduated magna cum laude with a Juris Doctor in 1986. He passed the bar examination in Illinois in 1987. After his father's death, he returned to the Philippines and passed the Philippine Bar Examination in 1988, beginning his law practice the following year.
Legal career
Diokno returned to the Philippines in 1987 and has regularly served as an amicus curiae in the Supreme Court. In the 1990s, Diokno served in the Commission on Human Rights under Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos. He was also a member of the Committee on Human Rights and Due Process at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. He has also served as a special counsel for the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.Diokno was part of the team of lawyers affiliated with the Free Legal Assistance Group who prosecuted the 27 police officers implicated in the 1995 Kuratong Baleleng rubout case.
In 2001, Diokno was the private prosecutor in the impeachment proceedings against then-President Joseph Estrada. That same year, he became General Counsel of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee under Senator Joker Arroyo. In 2004, he was appointed Special Counsel at the Development Bank of the Philippines.
Chairmanship of the Free Legal Assistance Group
Diokno became the chairman of the Free Legal Assistance Group in 2003.In the NBN–ZTE deal corruption scandal, he served as the counsel for Jun Lozada, the whistleblower and lead witness in the Ombudsman's cases against former National Economic and Development Authority head Romulo Neri and former Commission on Elections chair Benjamin Abalos.
In 2007, he, along with fellow FLAG lawyers Theodore Te and Ricardo Sunga III, petitioned and were granted by the Supreme Court to issue Writs of Amparo for Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo, two brothers who were allegedly tortured by military agents. In 2008, he secured the release of the "Tagaytay 5," who were allegedly illegally detained by the Philippine National Police.
Together with Te, Diokno represented several media organizations in a petition against the Arroyo administration in 2018. The case involved members of ABS-CBN, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Probe Productions, Newsbreak, and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, among others, who were allegedly rounded up for their "illegal" coverage of the Manila Peninsula siege. In 2019, Diokno served as the lead lawyer, alongside Te, for Rappler CEO and founder Maria Ressa against the Duterte administration. One case he handled was People of the Philippines v. Santos, Ressa and Rappler.
Following the resignation of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, Diokno was named as a candidate for the position, which ultimately went to then-Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales.
Until 2019, Diokno served as the Presidential Adviser on Human Rights at the IBP and was a member of the Panel of Arbitrators at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
Academic career
Diokno taught at Far Eastern University during its collaboration with De La Salle University and at the Ateneo de Manila University from 2003 to 2010. In 2006, Diokno established the Diokno Law Center, which provides legal training to various government agencies. In 2007, Diokno published the book Diokno on Trial, which would be considered a staple in trial courses.In 2009, Diokno founded the De La Salle University College of Law and served as its founding dean until 2019. On August 21, 2022, he was named the chairman of the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation.
Philippine Senate campaigns
2019
In the 2019 Philippine general election, Diokno ran for a seat in the Senate as a member of the Liberal Party under the Otso Diretso coalition, which opposed President Rodrigo Duterte's human rights record. His senatorial bid received endorsements from former associate justices Antonio Nachura and Roberto A. Abad as well as former Ombudsmen Conchita Carpio-Morales and Simeon V. Marcelo.He was defeated, placing 21st in the official results. On July 19, 2019, the PNP–Criminal Investigation and Detection Group filed charges against Diokno and other opposition members for "sedition, cyber libel, libel, estafa, harboring a criminal, and obstruction of justice." These charges were related to the "Bikoy" videos. On February 10, 2020, he was cleared of all charges.
2022
On June 12, 2021, ahead of the 2022 Philippine presidential election, 1Sambayan—a coalition that aimed to field a single candidate against President Duterte's preferred successor—endorsed Diokno and five others for president and vice president. He declined to run for either position, stating that while he was honored by the nomination, he preferred continuing his Free Legal Helpdesk and other forms of service.On September 15, 2021, Diokno announced his candidacy for the Senate in the 2022 Philippine Senate election. While he initially planned to run as an independent, he filed his certificate of candidacy for the position as a member of the Katipunan ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino on October 7. During the campaign, he ran under Team Robredo–Pangilinan in support of the presidential bid of Vice President Leni Robredo. He was also listed as a guest candidate in the senatorial slate of her opponent Leody de Guzman. Diokno went on to be defeated again, placing 19th in the official results.
House of Representatives (since 2025)
Election
On May 14, 2024, Diokno announced his intention to run for the Senate for a third time in the 2025 elections. He would backtrack from his initial plans upon becoming a member of Akbayan later in the year. The party later announced that they nominated Diokno as their first nominee for the 2025 Philippine House of Representatives elections.Leading up to the election, pollsters including Pulse Asia projected Akbayan to be at risk of losing its sole seat in the lower house. The party went on to top the party-list election with 2,779,621 votes, securing three seats in the 20th Congress for Diokno, incumbent Representative Perci Cendaña, and Dadah Kiram Ismula. Media outlets regarded the results as an upset victory for the party, with Diokno himself expressing shock at the results.
Tenure
On May 14, 2025, Speaker Martin Romualdez invited Diokno as well as fellow representative-elect Leila de Lima to serve on the prosecution panel in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. The invitation was seconded by Representatives Joel Chua and Jay Khonghun, who noted the "background and legal expertise" of the representatives-elect as being beneficial to the panel. Diokno accepted the invitation. Akbayan, having endorsed the first impeachment complaint against Duterte, supported his participation in the panel. In response to his acceptance of the invitation, Duterte criticized Diokno for being "anti-Duterte since birth", which he refuted.On July 30, 2025, Diokno was named as an Assistant House Deputy Minority Leader for the 20th Congress.