Why Haydee B. Yorac is someone to look up to
They rose. They lifted others.
A lawyer, educator, and public servant remembered for integrity, courage, and principled leadership when institutions most needed both.
Haydee B. Yorac (1941–2005)
Integrity When Integrity Was Difficult
Some public servants are remembered for the positions they held.
Haydee Yorac is remembered for what she did with them.
A lawyer, University of the Philippines law professor, election commissioner, peacebuilder and government reformer, Yorac repeatedly accepted assignments where the institutions involved were under enormous political pressure - and where independence mattered.
Her commitment to democratic institutions was not merely academic. During martial law, she was detained for more than three months. After the restoration of democracy in 1986, she was called to help rebuild institutions whose credibility had been badly damaged.
At Comelec
Yorac served seven years as a commissioner of the Commission on Elections.
She became known for taking on some of the hardest electoral assignments - including elections in areas where violence, intimidation and entrenched political interests made credible elections extraordinarily difficult.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation later recalled how she personally went into dangerous areas and confronted armed political power rather than allow fear to determine how the law would be enforced.
For Yorac, independence was not something merely written into an institution's mandate.
She practiced it.
A Peacebuilder
In 1992, President Fidel Ramos appointed Yorac chair of the National Unification Commission.
Rather than treating peace simply as the surrender of armed groups, the commission conducted consultations around the country and listened to communities affected by conflict.
Its work helped produce what became known as the Six Paths to Peace - a broader approach recognizing that lasting peace also requires addressing poverty, injustice, inequality, governance and the conditions that give rise to conflict.
Then came perhaps the most difficult assignment of her public career.
The Pcgg
In 2001, Yorac became chair of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the agency charged with recovering wealth accumulated by Ferdinand Marcos, his family and associates.
By then, the commission itself had suffered years of controversy and declining public confidence.
Yorac set about rebuilding it.
She reorganized the agency, professionalized its work, improved its records, recruited capable young lawyers, reviewed long-pending cases and pushed the commission to pursue recoveries through legal processes rather than political rhetoric.
And there were results.
During her leadership, US$683 million from Marcos-linked Swiss bank accounts was recovered for the Philippine national treasury.
That figure is impressive.
But perhaps more important than the amount was how she approached the job.
She understood that accountability depends on painstaking work: preserving records, establishing ownership, assembling evidence, employing competent lawyers, following legal procedure and having the patience to pursue cases that can take years - or decades.
There were no shortcuts simply because the cause was righteous.
The Magsaysay Award
In 2004, Haydee Yorac received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service.
The citation recognized her:
“exceptional integrity and rigor” and her “unwavering pursuit of the rule of law.”
Those words matter.
Integrity - and rigor.
Good intentions were not enough for Haydee Yorac. Public service demanded competence. Accountability demanded evidence. The rule of law demanded that even worthy objectives be pursued properly.
And despite the stature she eventually acquired, her own view of herself was remarkably modest:
No one is indispensable... Making a difference is enough.
Why Haydee Yorac Matters Today
Her story has unusual resonance at a time when Filipinos are again debating accountability, evidence, institutional independence and the recovery of ill-gotten wealth.
Yorac reminds us of something easy to forget:
Strong institutions do not become strong by themselves.
They require people willing to master the facts, protect the evidence, resist political pressure, follow the law, do the tedious work and remain at their posts when doing the right thing becomes inconvenient.
That kind of public service can sometimes seem rare.
Haydee Yorac proved that it is possible.
And perhaps that is why, more than two decades after her death, her example still asks something of us:
What if we expected that standard from every public servant?
Real peole. A brighter Philippines.