At a Forum on Lawfare: weaponizing the law against democratic dissent, leading civil liberties advocate Dr. Pacifico Agabin, former Dean of the UP College of Law, put in context the terms “lawfare”, “weaponizing the law” and the “rule of law”. Associating the former two with democratic backsliding, he averred that the latter term “should not be taken out of its overarching purpose to protect political speech or political dissent;” that it should be anchored on “the primal values of our Constitution.” Citing American judge Learned Hand, Dean Agabin said in conclusion that the resolution in times of democratic backsliding lay not in the law, nor in the courts, nor even in the Constitution but in the “liberty that lies in the hearts of men and women.”

Dean Agabin’s full speech may be accessed at https://www.rappler.com/nation/252392-highlights-forum-weaponizing-law-democratic-dissent