Kristina Conti has never seen being a lawyer as a glamorous job  recalling how her mother was paid in the form of bananas, fish, and other trinkets. And although she now also stands as the 5th nominee for Bayan Muna Partylist, she said that she has no expectations to become a lawmaker. “I think of this (the nomination) as an opportunity to get back to the people, get in touch with them and re-learn about them,” she said.

MANILA — In January 2001, toward the end of her first year at the University of the Philippines, Kristina “Krissy” Conti decided to join her academic organization and went to EDSA to join a protest calling for the ouster of then impeached president Joseph Estrada on grounds of corruption and his involvement in jueteng.

Arm-in-arm with the Association of Biology Majors of UP, she remembers how the cars honked their horns to the tune of the people’s chant: ‘Erap Resign!’

Bolstered by what she saw on the first day and inspired by the energy of the people, Conti decided to continue attending the three-day long protest even when the majority of her acquaintances in the academic organization decided not to attend the following days. 

The three-day protest, which would eventually be known as the Second EDSA uprising, was her first exposure to activism and the people’s movement, as well as the start of her long career as a human rights defender.

From science to journalism

Conti first entered UP Diliman as a student of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (MBB). As a graduate of the Philippine Science High School (PSHS), it seemed natural for her to become a science major. 

Despite being in a science high school, she was already exposed to the progressive teachings of Fanny Garcia Talampas, a well-known Filipino writer who made her transition to UP (and eventually to its student activist organizations).

A few months after the second EDSA uprising, she was finally introduced to the student activist organizations in UP. 

She joined Anakbayan soon after, mentioning how it resounded well with her when she learned that the organization was dutifully present in all three days of EDSA II. While her activism did raise some eyebrows, especially after she also became the chairperson of the political party Student Alliance for the advancement of Democratic Rights (STAND UP), she stood by what she believed in. 

“That’s when I also realized that when you stand for something, someone is bound to be offended,” she told Bulatlat. “It made me realize why (as an activist) you needed to have a clear principle. You cannot do everything nominally.”

As she became active in student organizations, she eventually realized that staying in her science course was not her true calling. She explained that although she had to take a science course in college to secure a scholarship, her heart was not there anymore.

By her third year, she shifted to journalism all while remaining active with Anakbayan.

“Because of the cross-college character of Anakbayan, I met a lot of other activists including Karen Empeño,” she said. 

A call to become a peoples’ lawyer

Though Conti and Empeño became close as batchmates of the same organization, they parted ways in their senior year with Empeño deciding to be a full-time community worker for farmers in Bulacan while Conti tried to join the working force.

She worked as a journalist for BusinessWorld for a year until 2006 when she received news that Empeño went missing along with another UP student Sherlyn Cadapan and three other peasant activists while they were conducting research in a community in Hagonoy, Bulacan.

Read: Four peasant activists missing in Central Luzon 

When the Supreme Court offered the judicial remedy of the writ of amparo for cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in 2007, she decided to go back to school.

With enthusiastic support from her mother, who agreed to shoulder her expenses, Conti decided in 2008 to study at the UP College of Law, her mother’s alma mater.

Sadly, there was no human rights organization in UP Law except for the Paralegal Volunteers Association. She tried organization-hopping but nothing seemed to click. “So we thought: why not form an organization?” 

In 2009, she got acquainted with the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) and saw how their principles aligned with the kind of organization she was looking for. 

Along with other law students who were activists, they formed NUPL’s first affiliate student chapter, NUPL-UP chapter. Then in their second semester, they were able to organize law students at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP).

“On the first day of law school, they ask you what kind of lawyer you want to be. I have always known I didn’t want to be a corporate or firm lawyer. I would answer then that I saw myself doing litigation and dabbling in human rights,” she said in another article.

“Because I knew I wanted to help (find) my friend and other desaparecidos,” she added. 

A human rights’ lawyer

After she graduated from law school, Conti joined NUPL. One of the cases she took on was the case of her friend Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan against then Army commander Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan.

In 2015, she was introduced to KAPATID, a support organization of families and friends of political prisoners in the Philippines that works for their release and the protection of their rights and welfare. 

There she worked on the case of Andrea Rosal, daughter of the late spokesperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal. She was arrested on March 27, 2014 in Caloocan City while heading for her pre-natal check-up. During detention, Rosal’s two-day old baby daughter Diona Andrea died. Rosal blamed her baby’s poor health in part to government neglect and adverse jail conditions. 

Read: Andrea Rosal calls for justice

“My first cases were really the kind where you could expect vitriol,” Conti said. “And I got really used to handling cases that are really polarizing, in nature.”

Then in 2016, the administration of then president Rodrigo Duterte started his so-called “war on drugs.” Conti, who was secretary-general of NUPL’s NCR chapter at the time, took on the countersuits filed on extra-judicial killings (EJK).

“I decided to take them fully knowing that no one else would be willing to take these cases,” she said. “By 2017 we were already filing cases, then in 2018 we brought the cases up to the ICC.” 

Llore Pasco of Rise Up for Life and for Rights is one of Conti’s clients. Pasco lost her two sons, Crisanto and Juan Carlos, in 2017.

Read: Rights groups back kin of drug-related killings on ICC case

“I first met Atty. Krissy in 2018, when they (NUPL) were encouraging us to submit our cases to the ICC,” Pasco said in a phone interview with Bulatlat. 

“At first I was really hesitant. I told them I was afraid that the people who killed my sons would come after me if I filed a case, but she reassured me.”

Pasco said that before filing the cases, Conti talked to the families of EJK victims to explain their rights and discuss why it is important for them to continue to fight.

Conti has never seen being a lawyer as a glamorous job  recalling how her mother was paid in the form of bananas, fish, and other trinkets. 

And although she now also stands as the fifth nominee for the partylist group Bayan Muna, Conti said that she has no expectations to become a lawmaker. 

“I think of this (the nomination) as an opportunity to get back to the people, get in touch with them and re-learn about them,” Conti said, explaining how she has been using the campaign to carry the issue of the ICC case, the EJK cases, and other human rights violations.

“That’s why I always say that I am a human rights activist who just happens to be a lawyer,” she said. (DAA, RVO)

*Editor’s note: This article was updated to correct that Conti was only introduced and did not join the organization, KAPATID in 2015. We apologize for the mistake.