House Majority Leader and Leyte 1st district Rep. Martin Romualdez led the sweet tributes for the late Justice Manuel “Lolong” Lazaro on Thursday morning, May 19 at the Sanctuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park, Makati City.
From 1976 to 1986, Lazaro was the Government Corporate Counsel (GCC) with the rank and privileges of Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeals (CA).
Lazaro is the late chairman of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa), a non-stock and nonpartisan organization committed to defend, preserve, and protect the Constitution. Romualdez is the Philconsa president.
"We are all here today and we are still in disbelief that our leading light, Justice Lolong, has gone ahead of us...He had set the bar so high for a former member of the Court of Appeals. A justice par excellence," the Leyte solon said of Lazaro in his eulogy on Thursday, May 19.
"He belonged to that rare breed of lawyers in the country who masterfully balance his work as justice and family man. Throughout his career in the judiciary and even in his private life, Justice Lolong served as an immovable defender of the Constitution, the likes of whom are few and far in between," Romualdez continued.
The tribute to the late magistrate was held at the Sanctuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park, Makati City.