Justice Marvic Leonen

Mario Victor "Marvic" F. Leonen (born December 29, 1962) is an Associate

Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. He is the second youngest to hold
the said position since Manuel V. Moran in 1938. Prior to his stint in the country's
highest court, he had served as chief peace negotiator of the Republic of the
Philippines in the talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Leonen was dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law at
Diliman from 2008 to 2011. He is well known in the fields of environmental activism
and community organizing.

Education and early career

After finishing high school at Saint Louis University-Boys' High School as

valedictorian, Leonen graduated magna cum laude with a degree in economics
from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1983 and served as chairman of
the organization Economics Toward Consciousness, a student organization based
in the University of the Philippines School of Economics, in A.Y. 1982-1983. He
obtained his law degree from the university's College of Law in 1987. Later that
year, he co-founded the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center, Inc.-Kasama sa
Kalikasan, a legal and policy research and advocacy institution which focused on
providing legal services for upland rural poor and indigenous people's
communities. He served as the Center's executive director for fifteen years. He then
left for Columbia University for his Master of Laws degree.

At the UP College of Law

Leonen joined the law faculty in 1989 as professorial lecturer in Philippine

Indigenous Law. He became assistant professor during the term of Dean Pacifico
Agabin and started to do work as an academic administrator under the term of
Dean Merlin M. Magallona. In 2000, he joined the University of the Philippines
System administration as University General Counsel. In March 2005, he became
the first Vice President for Legal Affairs of the UP System. Leonen has taught 20
different subjects in the law school. He also served as director of the clinical legal
education program of the college. His teaching competence is not only
acknowledged in the CL but also in other institutions like Miriam College and the
Philippine Judicial Academy, to cite a few. He has extensively lectured and acted as
resource speaker in other national and international fora such as those conducted
in Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Spain, Netherlands, Australia,
Estonia and the United Kingdom.

In 2008, he was selected as the Dean of the University of the Philippines

College of Law at UP Diliman by the Board of Regents of the UP System. He served
as Dean until the appointment of Danilo L. Concepcion in June 2011.

Leonen has also provided legal commentary for television networks such as
ABS-CBN and GMA Network during the coverage of such events as the 2001
impeachment trial of President Joseph Estrada.

Government chief peace negotiator (2010–2012)

In July 2010, Leonen was named by Philippine President Benigno Aquino III
as the Philippine government's chief negotiator with the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front. Under his leadership, the government successfully sealed a framework
agreement with the MILF for the establishment of the Bangsamoro political entity
to replace the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao. His performance was
hailed by different sectors in society, bringing new hopes for an everlasting peace
in the war-torn Mindanao.
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (2012–present)

On 21 November 2012, President Benigno Aquino III named Leonen as the

172nd Associate Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court at the age of 49. Leonen
is the youngest Justice in the current century.

In oral arguments, Leonen frequently challenges the arguer's position with

his stringent lines of questioning. He has a remarkable command of the Socratic
method in order to test positions and arguments of counsel appearing in Court.

In a landmark case of Belgica v Executive Secretary, where the Court declared

the Priority Development Assistance Fund unconstitutional, Leonen wrote a
separate concurring opinion where he displayed great command of logic and the
law in order to arrive with conclusions regarding the unconstitutionality of pork
barrel. He said, "A member of the House of Representatives or a Senator is not an
automated teller machine from which the public can withdraw funds for sundry
private purposes."