Fulgencio Santos Factoran Jr. (November 3, 1943 – April 5, 2020), also known as Jun Factoran, was a Filipino lawyer, politician,

human rights activist A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing campai ...

pro-democracy Democratization, or democratisation, is the structural government transition from an authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. Whether and to what ...

activist, and advocate for

freedom of the press in the Philippines Mass media in the Philippines consists of several types of media: television, radio, newspapers, magazines, cinema, and websites. In 2004, the Philippines had 225 television stations, 369 AM radio broadcast stations, 583 FM radio broadcast s ...

. Factoran was a key opponent of the

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and Kleptocracy, kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the c ...

dictatorship. After the restoration of democracy, he served in the

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Corazon Aquino María Corazón "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipino politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines and the first woman president in the country, from Presidency of Corazon ...

Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources (Philippines) A secretary, administrative assistant, executive assistant, personal secretary, or other similar titles is an individual whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, program evalu ...

(DENR) from 1987 to 1992. In 2018, Factoran was identified as a Motu Proprio victim of human rights violations during the Martial Law era by the Human Rights Victims Claims Board.

Early life and education

Fulgencio Santos Factoran was born on November 3, 1943, in

Orion Orion may refer to: Common meanings * Orion (constellation), named after the mythical hunter * Orion (mythology), a hunter in Greek mythology Arts and media Fictional entities Characters and species * Orion (character), a DC Comics c ...

Bataan Bataan (, , , ; ) , officially the Province of Bataan, is a province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Its capital is the city of Balanga while Mariveles is the largest town in the province. Occupying the entire Bataan Peninsula ...

to Fulgencio Factoran Sr. and Gloria Santos. Factoran received both his

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

and

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degrees from the

University of the Philippines The University of the Philippines (UP; ) is a Higher education in the Philippines#State universities and colleges, state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by List of Philippine laws, Re ...

, where he was

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the class rank, highest-performing student of a graduation, graduating class of an academic institution in the United States. The valedictorian is generally determined by an academic institution's grade poin ...

of his law class. He then completed a Master of Law at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

in the United States. A longtime lawyer, he was the managing partner of Factoran & Associates Law Offices in Manila.

Human rights advocacy during martial law

During the

martial law under Ferdinand Marcos At 7:15 p.m. on September 23, 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos announced on television that he had placed the Philippines under martial law, stating he had done so in response to the "communist threat" posed by the newly founded Communist Part ...

, Factoran and other human rights lawyers, including

Jejomar Binay Jejomar "Jojo" Cabauatan Binay Sr. (born Jesus Jose Cabauatan Binay; November 11, 1942) is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 13th vice president of the Philippines from 2010 to 2016, under President Benigno Aquino III. A ...

, formed the

Movement of Attorneys for Brotherhood, Integrity, and Nationalism The Movement of Attorneys for Brotherhood, Integrity, and Nationalism, better known by its acronym "MABINI",Cull, H. A., & Allen, D. W. (1987). Human Rights Advocacy in the Philippines. Australian Section of the International Commission of Jurists. ...

(MABINI) which opposed President

Marcos Marcos may refer to: People with the given name ''Marcos'' *Marcos (given name) * Marcos family Sports ;Surnamed * Dayton Marcos, Negro league baseball team from Dayton, Ohio (early twentieth-century) * Dimitris Markos, Greek footballer * Né ...

' dictatorship.

Government service

In the aftermath of the 1986

People Power Revolution The People Power Revolution, also known as the EDSA Revolution or the February Revolution, were a series of popular Demonstration (people), demonstrations in the Philippines, mostly in Metro Manila, from February 22 to 25, 1986. There was a ...

which ousted Marcos, Factoran was appointed as deputy executive secretary to President Corazon Aquino from March 1986 to 1987. He then served as

(DENR) in President Aquino's

from 1987 until 1992. During his tenure as DENR Secretary, Factoran revoked many of the logging concessions that had been awarded during Marcos' rule. He created new programs to promote

reforestation Reforestation is the practice of restoring previously existing forests and woodlands that have been destroyed or damaged. The prior forest destruction might have happened through deforestation, clearcutting or wildfires. Three important purpose ...

efforts and reverse the extensive

deforestation in the Philippines As in other Southeast Asian countries, deforestation in the Philippines is a major environmental issue. Over the course of the 20th century, the forest cover of the country dropped from 70 percent down to 20 percent. A 2010 land cover mapping by ...

. He also transferred stewardship of forests to local residents and communities. Factoran opened the DENR archives to journalists, including Marites Vitug for her 1993 book "Power from the Forest: The Politics of Logging" to expose the abuses of the country's natural resources during the Marcos regime.

Later career

He later served in leadership positions at several government-run corporations, including the

National Electrification Administration The National Electrification Administration (NEA; ) is a government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) attached to the Department of Energy of the Philippines tasked in the full implementation of the rural electrification program (REP) a ...

and the

Philippine National Oil Company The Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) is an energy company created on November 9, 1973, as a government-owned and controlled corporation founded during President Ferdinand Marcos' era to supply oil to the Philippines. Since then, its cha ...

. Factoran had served on the

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

for ''

Rappler Rappler (portmanteau of the words "rap" and "ripples") is a Mass media in the Philippines, Filipino online news website based in Pasig, Metro Manila, the Philippines. It was founded by 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and convicted cyberlibelist ...

'', a major Filipino online news site from 2018 until his death in 2020. He was also a member of the board for the

Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) is a private, non-stock, non-profit foundation in the Philippines that has focused its endeavor on press freedom protection along with the establishment of a framework of responsibility fo ...

Death

Factoran died from a longtime illness on April 5, 2020, at the age of 76. He was predeceased by his wife, Kaye Mesina, and survived by their four children, Yazmin, Gertrude Anne, Fulgencio III, and Roberto Carlo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Factoran, Jun 1944 births 2020 deaths Secretaries of environment and natural resources of the Philippines 20th-century Filipino lawyers Filipino democracy activists Filipino human rights activists University of the Philippines alumni Harvard Law School alumni People from Bataan