Rarely does a man come along, who can dominate his chosen field and excel at it for so long.
Atty. Estelito "Titong" Patdu Mendoza is such a man.
"I'm a lawyer. I don't choose what cases I have. Those in the wrong side are most deserving of having lawyers. I'm just doing my job and that's what I have been trained for and I have been at this for many years,” Mendoza said during a 2010 interview with GMA online news.
“I find great satisfaction performing my duty because I contribute to the administration of justice. I can assure you that I win my cases because I work hard," he also said during the interview.
Mendoza passed away on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at the age of 95.
His passing was confirmed in a disclosure by the Philippine National Bank (PNB) to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).
“We are deeply saddened to report the passing of Atty. Estelito P. Mendoza, an esteemed director of PNB,” PNB’s disclosure to the PSE said.
It noted that Mendoza had been a director of the bank since Jan. 1, 2009.
“The Bank expresses its deepest gratitude and appreciation for his valuable contributions to the Bank,” PNB said.
Let history decide
Mendoza was representing then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at the time the GMA online news interview was conducted, and was being asked by the interviewer whether he had apprehensions about being perceived to be on the wrong side of history.
"Let history decide. History is not made in 10 years, it is made in generations," said Mendoza.
Aside from Arroyo, the then 80-year-old Mendoza, by that time, had also represented former President Joseph Estrada and individuals identified with the administration of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.
Mendoza successfully argued the case of then presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. whose citizenship qualification to run for president was being questioned before the Supreme Court (SC) which held the longest oral arguments on the case running well into midnight.
Mendoza, amiably called “Titong,” served as solicitor general from 1972 to 1986. As solicitor general, he successfully defended the validity of the 1973 Constitution.
In 1976, he was the chairperson of the United Nations General Assembly Legal Committee.
He served as minister of justice from 1984 to 1986, and member of the then Batasang Pambansa from 1978 to 1980 and from 1984 to 1986, and served as provincial governor of Pampanga from 1985 to 1986.
In 1987, Mendoza returned to private law practice and founded the law firm Estelito P. Mendoza & Associates.
Former governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and now chairman of Philtrust Bank Jaime C. Laya described Mendoza as a “forester of men”, a reference from the play “A Man for All Seasons” where St. Thomas More said that while he could not “navigate the currents and eddies of right and wrong … but in the thickets of the law … I am a forester … where no man alive could follow me.”
Mendoza, likewise, occupied board seats in corporations in the Philippines, such as Petron Corporation, San Miguel Corporation, PNB, and Manila Electric Company.
Aside from Estrada, Arroyo and the Marcoses, Mendoza’s clients included Lucio Tan, Roberto Ongpin, and former ambassador Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco. He also successfully argued the cases of then Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile and now re-elected Senator Bong Revilla.
On June 28, 2010, Mendoza received a Presidential Medal of Merit as Special Counsel on Marine and Ocean Concerns and was also awarded by the University of the Philippines Alumni Association (UPAA) its 1975 the "Professional Award in Law" and in 2013 its "Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award.”
Mendoza earned his law degree from UP in 1952 and Master of Laws degree from the Harvard Law School in 1954.