"Chel" Diokno is a human rights lawyer, Chairman of FLAG, head of the Diokno Law Center and member of the Jose W. Diokno Foundation, founding Dean of the De La Salle University College of Law, and former Special Counsel of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee. In 2019, "Chel" Diokno ran for Senator under the Liberal Party and nearly secured enough votes to obtain a seat. He joined forces with candidates of other parties to form the ""Otso Diretso"" (Direct Eight Candidates to the Senate) coalition, which opposed the Rodrigo Duterte administration. The administration of Duterte has been compared to the Marcos family rule without the privileged background or American ties of Marcos, but instead it has been seen currying favor with the dictatorship in Russia and the Communist Party of Mainland China. Duterte has also committed human rights violations and like Marcos shut down the media corporation of ABS-CBN. FLAG has represented Rappler founder Maria Ressa, the Time Person of the Year in 2018 during court hearings filed against her by the Duterte administration for Rappler's reports on Duterte's "War on Drugs and Murder of Drug Addicts".