Drilon to launch memoir: ‘Being Frank’
With impeachment moves again dominating the headlines, former Senate President Franklin Drilon is revisiting moments when the country last faced similar political tests in his upcoming autobiography.
On Feb. 9, Drilon will launch “Being Frank: A Memoir”, a 254-page first-person account that traces his decadeslong career in public service. The memoir covers major events in the country, political alliances, hard-won lessons, and landmark laws that helped shape the country’s modern history.
In the book, Drilon also offers an insider’s view of two historic impeachment trials, the removal of former President Joseph Estrada and the conviction of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona. Drilon served as senator-judge in both impeachment proceedings.
“Being Frank” offers tense, action-filled moments that unfold like a political drama.
Estrada trial
In one account, Drilon recalls receiving a series of phone calls in the days leading up to the Estrada impeachment trial.
“I remember the phone calls—some pleading, others threatening; former allies questioned my loyalty, my motives, even my integrity,” Drilon narrated, recalling the days before the Estrada trial began.
The impeachment trial began on Dec. 7, 2000, with Estrada facing charges of bribery, graft and corruption, culpable violation of the Constitution, and betrayal of public trust.
“It was unlike anything I had experienced in my decades of legal and political practice. The Senate chamber, usually a place of spirited or somber legislative debate, transformed into a courtroom where the very legitimacy of our democratic institutions hung in the balance,” Drilon said in the book.
Informal primer
For aspiring lawyers and young public servants, the memoir could serve as an informal primer on constitution and legal procedures as the former justice secretary walks readers through the legal strategies used by both the prosecution and the defense in the two impeachment trials, as well as some of legal missteps and successes that he witnessed when he sat as senator-judge twice.
Days on Senate floor
“I think about the young lawyers and public servants who will face their own moments of testing. My advice to you is simple: Listen to the evidence, follow your conscience, and remember that in a democracy, we are all temporary stewards of something far greater than ourselves. The marble floors of power are cold beneath our feet, but the warmth of doing what is right, of standing for truth, will sustain us long after we have left those halls behind,” Drilon said.
In his first memoir, Drilon also recounts long days on the Senate floor, private deliberations among colleagues; and offers readers what he describes as a front-row seat to events that shaped the country’s democratic institutions.
Drilon served four nonconsecutive terms as Senate president, making him one of the longest-serving leaders of the chamber. He previously held key Cabinet posts under President Corazon Aquino—as labor secretary, justice secretary, and executive secretary—and later returned as justice secretary under President Fidel Ramos.
His public service has been recognized with several honors, including a doctor of lws (honoris causa) from the University of the Philippines, the Legion of Honor from President Aquino, and the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun from then Japanese Emperor Akihito.
