DIOKNO AND Sanchez have since passed on, while Salonga has retired. Only Joker Arroyo, Saguisag, and occasionally Tañada remain in the public eye, along with Jejomar Binay, their former kakosa in court, who was named Makati's OIC in 1986, and enjoyed being the boss of the country's premier city so much he has yet to relinquish power there.

	RENE A.V. SAGUISAG Photo by Lilen Uy

Arroyo has been a legislator for more than a decade while Tañada now heads a fair trade alliance and a rural reform movement. Saguisag, meanwhile, finally went back to private practice after his Senate stint ended in 1992, and later began teaching again as well. He says more than 50 percent of his practice is pro bono. Although he placed sixth in the bar and has a master's degree from Harvard, Saguisag says he attracts many clients not because they see him as brilliant, but because his services are perceived to be either cheap or free. That's why while he may no longer be driving an '82 Mitsubishi Lancer, his Accord recently celebrated its 10th year on the road. "May inapamortize pa kami," says Saguisag. "It will be paid off in 2009 yet."

He says any lawyer now would handle "what few would touch with a 100-foot pole" during the Marcos years. But his firm still gets more than its fair share of human-rights cases — "mainly police abuse or people getting evicted, getting their place demolished." Ironically, he says it's not as easy as it was they were dealing with "torture, disappearances, salvaging." Back then, Saguisag says, things were black and white, "you were for or against the dictator. Now there are many shades of gray. It is hard to secure justice for anyone these days, and more so in human-rights cases."

To Saguisag, the promise of Edsa disappeared too soon; since 2001, he has even stopped going to the anniversary celebrations of the first people power. "I thought we had a very good beginning in 1987," he repeats. "We assembled a very good Supreme Court. Our Senate I thought was a good one. We had a good cabinet. And I thought that our successors would build on these."

"But today," he says, "where do you begin really? In the judiciary, in the legal profession, it's just so corrupt. Incredibly corrupt. When I was a young lawyer, wow, I was really proud to be a lawyer."

Adds Saguisag: "Marcos really destroyed the institutions. And we have not recovered. And that's my basic war with the current administration — that if you give up the moral high ground, if you do not set up the proper moral and ethical infrastructure, I don't know where this country (is headed). Most anyone who can leave is leaving."

For all that, he says, "We cannot give up on the only country we have." And while life may be far from being perfect, at least his eldest son has now joined him in street lawyering, and there is always the prospect of doing the jive or the slower, more romantic bachata with his wife after his work for the day is done.

Saguisag says it helps that he has a "childlike faith in the Lord. He takes care of the lilies of the field."

"I guess," he says, "I'm still okay as a lily of the field." — Cecile C.A. Balgos