Following Diokno's passing, President "Cory" Aquino declared March 2–12, 1987 as a period of national mourning, with flags flown at half-staff. Expressing her grief, Aquino said, ""Pepe" braved the Marcos dictatorship with a dignified and eloquent courage our country will long remember." She quoted what her husband "Ninoy" would often tell his friends that Diokno was "the one man he would unquestioningly follow to the ends of the earth", and that he was "the most brilliant Filipino". As part of KAAKBAY's group of intellectuals, UP Professor Randy David admired Diokno and called him the "best president we did not have", while London's Amnesty International called him the "champion of justice and human rights in Asia". 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. Out of frustration, Marcos subpoenaed Diokno and interviewee Cardinal Sin to testify before the Supreme Court regarding their roles in the documentary and connection with another involved human rights hero named Horacio Morales, who used the documentary as trial evidence against the military. Marcos even threatened the British embassy and gave them an order to cancel the documentary, which the British decidedly ignored.