AS we commemorate Labor Day, we remember the name Augusto Sanchez, more popularly known during his time as “Bobbit.” Together with Jovito Salonga, Renato Saguisag and Avelino “Ave” Cruz of ACCRA, they formed the best legal minds, political reformers and illustrious sons of Pasig, Rizal. Except for Salonga, they are products of the San Beda College of Law. All are bar topnotchers, with Salonga and Cruz even copping the first place in their respective bar examinations. After passing the bar, Bobbit joined the law office of Sen. Jovito Salonga. He later set up his own law office, which specialized in labor law practice. He was the foremost defender of ordinary workers and an active advocate of labor rights. He also published and edited a weekly paper in his native town of Pasig called the “Weekly Post,” which was eventually branded by his tormented adversaries as the “Weekly Pest.”
Bobbit first attracted national attention when he was elected delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention representing the congressional district of Pasig. Together with other idealists in the ConCon, he tried to introduce much needed constitutional reforms, but he was frustrated when President Ferdinand Marcos abruptly declared martial law in 1972. Just like the other oppositionists at that time, he went into hiding after the regime had arrested and jailed leading anti-government figures like Ninoy Aquino and Jose W. Diokno. But he could not remain quiet for long. Joined by other lawyer activists, they organized the Movement of Attorneys for Brotherhood, Integrity and Nationalism, which elected him as its first chairman. The Movement counted as members Joker Arroyo, Rene Saguisag, Jejomar Binay, Fulgencio Factoran, and other legal luminaries. MABINI became the foremost defender of the victims of the dictatorship. These human-rights lawyers took up the cases of the victims of martial law. He headed protest marches and rallies to denounce the abuses of Marcos and his authoritarian rule, further courting the ire of Marcos. During these years of living dangerously under the martial law regime, Bobbit was one of the visible faces of the anti-Marcos movement and his name was mentioned in the same breath as the eminent Lorenzo Tañada, fellow human-rights lawyer Joker Arroyo, publisher Joaquin Roces, Jose W. Diokno and others who remained in the country during its darkest days to lead the fight against tyrannical rule. Bobbit virtually dedicated his life fighting the dictator.
After Ninoy Aquino’s assassination in 1983, he became more active in the crusade to oust Marcos. He gained more adherents from the working class and he commanded massive following from the labor force whose interests he had boldly fought for and unselfishly served. He ran for the Batasang Pambansa in 1984 and emerged victorious despite massive electoral fraud. He realized, however, that the Batasang Pambansa was only a puppet legislative body to deodorize the stinking regime. He foresaw that inevitably the nascent people’s clamor to remove Marcos from power would eventually explode into an open revolt. Thus, the Edsa revolution finally materialized after Cory C. Aquino was fraudulently robbed of the presidential victory in the 1986 snap elections. Bobbit was named the new Labor secretary. However, powerful elements from the military, which accused Bobbit of being a communist, and business, which claimed that he is too biased for labor, strongly opposed his appointment. To avoid destabilizing her fledgling government, Aquino succumbed to pressure and relieved Bobbit from his post barely a few months after he occupied the Labor portfolio. He was eventually succeeded in his position by Franklin Drilon who was his undersecretary.
Drilon, who served as the Managing Partner of ACCRA, acted as corporate counsel for many corporations, including labor problems on the side of management, and had numerous encounters with Bobbit during their practice. Despite their philosophical differences, Drilon admitted, “I had a number of encounters with Bobbit Sanchez during those raucous times but he always respected me, I would like to think, and I always had a respect for him.”
Bobbit continued to receive death threats after he left the government. He grieved the disappearance and murder of his friend and close colleague in the labor movement, Orlando Olalia, on November 19, 1986. Less than a year later, a prominent UP student leader and activist, Lean Alejandro, was killed on September 19, 1987. But Bobbit remained undaunted. After he lost in his Senate bid in the 1987 election, he faded from public view but he quietly continued his legal struggle to protect the lowly workers against abuses and exploitation. He died from a natural cause on February 15, 2003 at the age of 71, but his memory shall remain alive in the hearts of the working class whose interests he had championed all his life.