The Washington Post - USA (2021-10-26)

B8 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 , 2021

BY PHIL DAVISON

José Luís “Chito” Gascón, a
Philippine lawyer and human
rights activist who opposed the
autocratic rule of Ferdinand
Marcos and more recently
brought global attention to the
murderous “war on drugs”
launched by current strongman
president Rodrigo Duterte, died
Oct. 9 at 57.
The cause was complications
from covid-19, his younger
brother Miguel Gascón wrote on
his Facebook page. He did not
say where Mr. Gascón died.
Mr. Gascón spent his entire
career, from his student days in
Manila and at Cambridge, fight-
ing for democracy, social reform
and human rights around the
world. As 21-year-old president
of the students’ council at the
University of the Philippines, he
helped organize peaceful street
protests that, combined with a
military mutiny, ended Marcos’s
20-year rule in the February
1986 “people power revolution.”
Mr. Gascón was part of a
summer fellows program at
Stanford University in 2005
aimed at training potential
global leaders to work on the
front lines toward democratic
change. Michael McFaul, direc-
tor of Stanford’s Freeman Spogli
Institute for International Stud-
ies and a former U.S. ambassa-
dor to Russia, described Mr.
Gascón as “a true hero for hu-
man rights.”
Since 2015, Mr. Gascón had
been chairman of the Philippine
government’s Commission on
Human Rights. Appointed by
the previous president, Benigno
Aquino III, he became one of the
biggest thorns in the political
flesh of Duterte.
After Duterte became presi-
dent in 2016, he and Mr. Gascón
had almost daily public dis-
agreements over the drug war.
Duterte’s police forces and the
vigilante groups he inspired
killed or “disappeared” thou-
sands of drug dealers and ad-
dicts in recent years. Many more
are believed to have been killed
by gangs taking their lead from
the police, and feeling safe from
them.
Duterte said he wanted drug
dealers off the streets, but their
bodies were often found on
those same streets, with the
president claiming the country’s
courts were too clogged to put
them on trial.
Photos of corpses, often
wrapped up in packaging tape
with cards reading “drug deal-
er,” shocked the world, especial-
ly after families said they were

not dealers but addicts who had

been trying to get help. Duterte’s

supporters began revering Ron-

ald dela Rosa, his shaven-head-

ed chief of the National Police,

who took on a rock star image

and had women screaming in

adoration in the streets. Dela

Rosa, nicknamed “Bato” (the

Rock), later quit the police force

and won a S enate seat in 2019.

For his courageous condem-

nation of Duterte’s extrajudicial

killings in the name of the “war

on drugs,” Mr. Gascón rose to

global prominence in recent

years, attacking the threat to

democracy around the world. As

keynote speaker at the 20 17

Geneva Summit for Human

Rights and Democracy — a glob-

al coalition of nongovernmental

human rights groups — he

warned of “the menacing twin

specters of violent extremism

and illiberal populist dema-

goguery looming heavily in ev-

ery hemisphere, ready to over-

whelm us into submission.”

He lamented “the same old

arguments, that in uncertain

and difficult times, such as we

currently have, the only safety

and security that one can obtain

is that which can be given by a

strongman we must obey and

surrender our fundamental

rights to.” Calling on people

around the world to resist these

threats, he added: “Pushback is

when journalists fight for truth

against all odds, even when they

are called enemies of the peo-

ple.”

In 2017, Duterte publicly

threatened to shut down the

Commission on Human Rights

and tried to discredit Mr.

Gascón by calling him “gay” and

a “pedophile.”

Duterte’s popularity rating re-

mains around 70 percent do-

mestically, although Mr.

Gascón’s investigations were be-

ginning to chip away at it in

recent months. And his cam-

paign received a major boost

earlier this month when his

friend, Philippine journalist

Maria Ressa, shared the Nobel

Peace Prize for her dogged ba ttle

for press freedom in the Philip-

pines.

The International Criminal

Court recently launched an in-

vestigation into the thousands

of extrajudicial killings of drug

dealers and addicts under Du-

terte but has announced no

progress so far. Duterte has

refused to cooperate with the

ICC or allow its investigators

into the country.

Duterte has not commented

on Mr. Gascón’s death, but Vice

President Maria Leonor Robre-

do paid tribute to him. “My

sympathies are with his wife

and children, the entire CHR

staff and all those who defend

human rights and equal and free

society,” she said in a statement.

“He was a student leader,

advocate and mentor that so

many looked up to,” she said.

“When I was still a s tudent... it

was Chito who led us in marches

against the dictatorship,” she

added, referring to the 20-year

rule of President Marcos.

José Luís Martín Gascón was

born in Manila on May 26, 1964.

He first studied philosophy and

later law at the University of the

Philippines in the capital before

receiving a master’s degree in

international law at the Univer-

sity of Cambridge in England.

In addition to his brother,

survivors include his wife, the

former Melissa Mercado, and a

daughter, Ciara. Details on any

additional survivors were not

immediately available.

After Mr. Ga scón’s participa-

tion in the overthrow of Marcos,

the new president, Corazon

Aquino, appointed him as the

youngest member of a commis-

sion to draft a new constitution,

which took effect in 1987. He

also became the nation’s young-

est congressman.

He initially focused on chil-

dren’s rights and went on to

hold various human-rights-re-

lated roles within the govern-

ment, in Congress and indepen-

dently. Before being elected

chairman of the Commission on

Human Rights, he was involved

in winning compensation for

victims of martial law under

Marcos.

Leila de Lima, a Philippine

human rights activist and sena-

tor, wrote a tribute on

R appler.com, co-founded by

Ressa. It had extra resonance,

having been written from a jail

cell where she has spent more

than four years on what she calls

“trumped-up charges.”

Formerly chair of the Senate

committee on justice and hu-

man rights, she was accused of

corruption involving drug pro-

ceeds. No evidence emerged,

and she and her supporters

insist she was jailed for her

outspoken opposition to Du-

terte.

Praising Mr. Gascón as an

inspiration, she wrote: “You can

spend years speaking about de-

fending human rights, and ad-

vocating for justice for victims,

but nothing can ever prepare

you for being a victim yourself.

The helplessness is real, no mat-

ter how strong you think your-

self to be.

“And Chito was there for me.

A defender and a victim, yes, but

a fellow human rights advocate

from beginning to end.... He

helped keep my story alive in the

minds of allies here and

abroad.”

[email protected]

JOSÉ LUÍS ‘CHITO’ GASCÓN, 57

Philippine human rights activist took on Marcos, Duterte

BULLIT MARQUEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS

As chair of the Ph ilippines’ Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Gascón leads the families of victims of extrajudicial killings in President

Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal crackdown on drugs during a 2019 march in Manila to call for a United Nations investigation.

Mr. Gascón warned in

2017 of “the menacing

twin specters of violent

extremism and illiberal

populist demagoguery

looming heavily in every

hemisphere, ready to

overwhelm us into

submission.”

FROM STAFF REPORTS

AND NEWS SERVICES

James Michael Tyler, an actor
best known for his role as the
love-smitten barista Gunther
on “Friends,” died Oct. 24 at his
home in Los Angeles. He was
59.
The cause was prostate can-
cer, said his manager, Toni
Benson.
Mr. Tyler appeared briefly in
1990s series such as “Just Shoot
Me!” and “Sabrina the Teenage
Witch” before being cast as a
background character in the
second episode of “Friends” in
1994.
Over the show’s multiyear
run, he became the most fre-
quently recurring guest star on
the series playing Gunther, the
Central Perk barista with an
unrequited affection for Rachel
(Jennifer Aniston).
Mr. Tyler was initially cast
while working as a barista at
the Bourgeois Pig coffee shop in
Los Angeles.
He didn’t have a line of
dialogue on “Friends” until he
had made 33 appearances on
the show, according to the 2019
book, “Generation Friends: An
Inside Look at the Show That
Defined a T elevision Era.” Over
the 235 episodes, Mr. Tyler
appeared in 150 of them.
Once “Friends” concluded in
2004, Mr. Tyler made appear-
ances on “Scrubs” and “Modern
Music,” and he played himself
on an episode of Matt LeBlanc’s
“Episodes” in 2012.
Mr. Tyler was born on May
28, 1962, and spent his early
childhood in Winona, Miss. He
was 11 when his father, a r etired
Air Force captain, died in a car
accident. His mother, a home-

maker, also died around that

time, of breast cancer. He then

moved in with a married older

sister in Anderson, S.C

He began acting while at-

tending Clemson University,

where he graduated in 1984

with a geology degree. “I was

fascinated with kind of being

someone else,” he told the Clari-

on-Ledger of Jackson, Miss.

“After I graduated, I had one job

offer from Exxon to monitor oil

rigs in the Gulf.”

Instead, he received a mas-

ter’s of fine arts degree from the

University of Georgia in 1987,

then went to Los Angeles to

enter show business.

He wound up working as an

extra for $55 a d ay on “Friends.”

One of the producers elevated

him to “coffee guy,” he said,

when he said he knew how to

operate a cappuccino machine

from his work at the Bourgeois

Pig. Not long after that, the

producer asked whether he had

any acting experience.

He was given a word of

dialogue — “ Yes” — and a name,

Gunther.

“They gradually created the

obsession that my character

had with Jennifer’s character,

and they sustained that for 10

years,” he told the Jackson

newspaper.

After being diagnosed with

cancer, Mr. Tyler starred in two

short films while undergoing

treatment and gave a spoken-

word performance of the Ste-

phen Kalinich poem “If You

Knew” to help raise awareness

for the Prostate Cancer Founda-

tion.

His first marriage, to Barbara

Chadsey, ended in divorce. Sur-

vivors include his wife, Jennifer

Carno.

JAMES MICHAEL TYLER, 59

Actor played lovelorn barista Gunther i n 150 ‘Friends’ episodes

PAUL ZIMMERMAN/GETTY IMAGES

Mr. Tyler, best known for playing Gunther on “Friends,” attends a 20 14 celebration of the show at a re-

creation of its coffee shop. He was initially cast as an extra while working as a barista in Los Angeles.

obituaries

Obituaries of residents from the

District, Maryland and Northern

Virg inia.

William Pendergast,

law firm partner

William Pendergast, 89, a

lawyer who became a partner

at the firm Arent Fox and

founding member of its food

and drug law group, died Sept.

14 at a hospital in Bethesda,

Md. The cause was kidney

failure, said his son Bill

Pendergast.

Mr. Pendergast, a resident

of Chevy Chase, Md., was born

in Kansas City, Mo. He was a

trial lawyer for the Food and

Drug Administration in the

early 1960s before entering

private practice. He worked

for Arent Fox from 1983 to

1996. He was a past chairman
      of the American Bar
      Association and Federal Bar
      Association’s food and drug
      committees, and his
      memberships included the
      Chevy Chase Club and the
      Metropolitan Club.

Katie Obenland,

school bus driver

Katie Obenland, 86, a

Montgomery County, Md.,

school-bus driver in the 1970s

and 1980s and then a crossing

guard until the early 2010s,

died Sept. 12 at a r etirement

community in Gaithersburg,

Md. The cause was interstitial

lung disease, said a stepson,

David Obenland.

Mrs. Obenland was born

Katie Hurst in Leesburg, Va.

— From staff reports

OF NOTE