Berenguer de Marquina had an extramarital affair with a Chinese mestiza from Cagsawa, Albay named Demetria Sumulong y Lindo and sired one daughter.

He liked Filipino food as well and enjoyed rice mixed with gatas ng kalabaw (carabao’s milk), raw eggs, and tapang usa (cured venison).

[11] However, since Diokno was too young when he passed the CPA exam, he could not receive a proper license until he was twenty-one, which led him to continue his law studies like his half-brother.

5, Diokno was the first Filipino lawyer to take his oath and appear on the post-war Roll of Attorneys on July 26, 1945)[17] together with a 24 year old future ally named Jovito Salonga with a score of 95.3, the highest since the language of instruction switched to English.

[18][11][19] As a reward he took a solo vacation in the United States, where he would frequently call Carmen "Nena" Icasiano, a commerce student from Bulacan studying at Far Eastern University.

They met in 1946 at a dinner party hosted by a future mayor named Arsenio Lacson, and Diokno started courting her, refusing to listen to his father to marry José Abad Santos's daughter.

[23] With his reputation as a legal practitioner established and secured, in December 1961, Diokno found out through the news that he was to be appointed as Secretary of Justice by President Diosdado Macapagal through Mayor Lacson's influence.

In March 1962, Diokno ordered a raid on a firm owned by Harry S. Stonehill, an American businessman who was suspected of tax evasion and bribing public officials, among other crimes.

Diokno only learned of his resignation from the news and received death threats from supporters of the president, which prompted him to rely on Mayor Lacson's special security.

[31] Sen. Diokno called on students to start protesting against the administration, anticipating that Marcos, who was nearing the end of his last term, would declare martial law and change the constitution to give himself absolute power.

[11][32] Previously, Marcos began building notoriety following the Jabidah massacre, where an estimated 14 to as much as 68 alleged Muslim youths were gunned down in Corregidor by unknown armed men in 1968.

[33] Following this event, a Moro insurgency would quickly develop, starting in Mindanao; it would evolve into a widespread armed-conflict that would engulf the nation decades after Marcos's lifetime.

They then alighted from their vehicle and began to fire at the large sedan of Enrile to give an impression of a terrorist ambush, setting the stage for Marcos's theatrical television announcement.

[44] Diokno and Aquino, whom the dictatorship considered their foremost opponents, were later handcuffed, blindfolded, and transferred via a chopper to solitary confinement at Fort Magsaysay, located in the municipality of Laur, Nueva Ecija.

Later in March 1983, Diokno founded the Kilusan sa Kapangyarihan at Karapatan ng Bayan (Movement for People's Sovereignty and Democracy) Organization or KAAKBAY, which was ideologically independent of beliefs like Marxism but was joined by fellow Marxists and Capitalists.

Before the creation of CORD, many former JAJA members who disagreed with the communists also organized a much wider alliance called the Kongreso ng Mamamayang Pilipino (KOMPIL) or the Congress of the Filipino People, and was mainly headed by Diokno.

Elected leaders included statesmen such as Diokno, Lorenzo Tañada, Aquilino Pimentel, Cecilia Muñoz-Palma, Ambrosio Padilla, Salvador Laurel, and Jovito Salonga.

Others came from non-political sectors, including Makati's Enrique Zobel, who was related to Andy Soriano and due to consanguinity was part of the Ayala Corporation.

In court, Diokno personally defended tribal groups, peasants, social workers threatened by exploitation, and military atrocities, which he represented pro-bono.

[57][58] Although the council paved the way for future human rights declarations by other organizations like the United Nations, their momentum gradually declined decades after the Marcos regime ended.

[59] Diokno was also, inter alia, the chairman of the first Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems, International (HURIDOCS) assembly in Strasbourg, France, which was a historic event that involved over two hundred representatives.

Diokno was appointed by the new President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino or Cory, wife of the slain Ninoy Aquino and mother of the future 15th president, Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, to serve as founding chairman of the Presidential Committee on Human Rights, now the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), and tasked to lead a government panel to negotiate for the return of rebel forces to the government folds.

[67] Diokno was also the principal negotiator in peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the main leftist coalition founded during martial law.

[20][71] Following Diokno's passing, President Cory Aquino declared March 2–12, 1987 as a period of national mourning, with flags flown at half-staff.

Diokno became famous in the United Kingdom after creating a martial law documentary called "To Sing Our Own Song" with the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1982.

[75] The influence of the ABC eventually led to the end of American military presence in the Philippines, notably in Subic Bay and Clark, Pampanga.

[80] The first ever Ka Pepe Diokno award as a Champion of Human Rights was given to Voltaire Y. Rosales, Executive Judge of Tanauan, Batangas for his effort in protecting the downtrodden, even giving up his life for the cause.

Subsequent annual awards have been given to worthy candidates such as Maria Ressa and Bishop Pablo Virgilio "Ambo" David, who in life or death, fulfilled the values of protecting human rights just as Senator Diokno did.

Sen. Diokno was married to Carmen "Nena" Reyes Icasiano on March 28, 1949, at Ermita Church, with whom he had ten (10) children mostly named after St. Jude Thaddeus, the saint of lost causes: Carmen Leonor or Mench, who was born a year after the marriage and became college valedictorian, then first joined the garment industry with husband Emil Escay before working for NGOs; Jose Ramon or Popoy, who joined the Lopez Group of Companies that established the ABS-CBN Corporation; Maria Paz Tadea or Pat, who joined banking companies in Europe and domestically such as ComBank; Maria Serena Encarnacion or Maris, who is a nationally recognized historian; Maria Teresa Tadea or Maitet, who is a UP cum laude graduate of Economics and was executive director of a non-profit institution called IBON Foundation; Ma.

[98] Diokno was also well-respected by his peers, and he carried the same stature as other talented and brilliant scholar-activists in history, including Jose Rizal and Apolinario Mabini.