Tony La Viña
@tonylavs.bsky.social
220 followers 47 following 2.1K posts
Lawyer, thinker, teacher, changemaker, social entrepreneur, and environmental, climate, and social justice activist. Filipino, Mindanawon, and global citizen.
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tonylavs.bsky.social
Happy to be the guest speaker at the academic convocation of the Centro Escolar University. I think I did well, especially because of the sing-along sections of my talk. We sang Ben and Ben’s Kapangyarihan at the beginning and ended with the new Taylor Swift song Opalite.
tonylavs.bsky.social
Earlier: oral midterms for my University of Makati environmental law class. They surprised me with their Happy Teacher's Day virtual background. So I put on my Neruda cover - to tell them I love them too!
tonylavs.bsky.social
Happy to meet Noni Abao, director of Bloom Where You Are Planted. Its the first Cinemalaya film I watched. I will be watching others.
tonylavs.bsky.social
Happy teacher’s Day Chad and Jurain, Rosh and Mao, Rose and Rius, Pia and Victoria and other Lumad teachers. We will have a reunion soon. We will rebuild the schools and they will be better.
tonylavs.bsky.social
Lets all bloom where we are planted! Thanks Noni Abao for such a powerful film!

Everyone an Agnes, Amanda, and Randy!

Tigilin ang pag-aatake sa mga aktibista! Hustisya para sa lahat ng pinaslang ng estado! Bilangong politikal, palayain!
tonylavs.bsky.social
Happy Myles, watching a concert in Manila for the first time in seven plus years. Nagkanta ug sayaw pa! Watch the videos!
tonylavs.bsky.social
The acquittal of Mabinay 6 is a relief, but it cannot undo the years of unjust detention they endured.

I must say though that Myles has become stronger as a person and more committed to social change after seven years, six months, and 28 days in unjust detention.
tonylavs.bsky.social
I visited him to offer the collaboration of the Movement Against Disinformation with the Mayors for Good Governance on the anti-corruption fight. Our litigation team in MAD is ready to fight the disinformation being deployed by corrupt politicians to escape accountability.
tonylavs.bsky.social
Happy to visit the good, bright future of the Philippines - Mayor Vico Sotto, my student and former colleague at the Ateneo School of Government.

Mayor Vico, as I have written and tell everyone, is the real thing in good governance.
tonylavs.bsky.social
Four gestures for the United Nations on its 80th anniversary! Its an imperfect institution, but it is essential for human rights and humanitarian crises, international cooperation on climate, biodiversity and other sustainability issues, and global peace and security,
tonylavs.bsky.social
Thank you St. Therese for your gentle whispers in these past months as I struggled with burdens! You reminded me to offer my pain and suffering so others may be healed and that I did!

Photos are from our 2012 pilgrimage to Lisieux.
tonylavs.bsky.social
I heard the news today oh boy. We will miss you, Kierkebark!
tonylavs.bsky.social
Reminders from the pandemic.
tonylavs.bsky.social
My best moment in this journey. Trinity Church, Downtown New York,Thursday, 25 September.

Praise the Lord, Oh my soul!
tonylavs.bsky.social
Boarding soon. Grateful for this trip & all the connections made. 2026 looks good for Klima and all the work that we do.

Special thanks to Bryce for his patience and dedication in assisting me. I am so lucky to have colleagues that are the most competent and caring in the world. Dios mabalos!
tonylavs.bsky.social
At the City College of New York. Alumn includes: Felix Frankffurter, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, Judd Hirsch, Woody Allen, Tony Curtis, Ben Gazzara, Stanley Kubrick, Edward G. Robinson, Jonas Salk, Richard Schiff and Eli Wallach went to school here.
tonylavs.bsky.social
Book launch,at the City College of New York, of Gani Serrano’s Reimagining Sustainability. Thanks Marie Lisa Dacanay for inviting me. Its a fitting close to my climate week.
tonylavs.bsky.social
Tonylavs, contemplating with fearless girl the New York Stock Exchange in Wall Street.
tonylavs.bsky.social
The youth, working with mass movements, can bring down the rotten walls of corruption and build in their place a government that protects the people and secures the future of this country.
tonylavs.bsky.social
Only the youth can lead this struggle.

It is the young who have had the courage to go where others will not, to press forward when fear or fatigue overwhelms their elders.

It is the youth, including those who stood in Mendiola last Sunday, who can carry this movement to its end.
tonylavs.bsky.social
Tens of thousands of citizens must peacefully surround House of Representatives, Senate, & Malacañang in that order until lawmakers & the President enact the laws the nation demands.

Only relentless pressure will force institutions captured by dynasties & oligarchs to legislate against themselves.
tonylavs.bsky.social
These new laws cannot be left to dynasties or oligarchs to design, for they will weaken them from the start.

They must be drafted by citizens themselves, assisted by development and social change lawyers who can frame airtight provisions and close every loophole.
tonylavs.bsky.social
Left unchecked, regulatory capture institutionalizes corruption by turning public agencies into tools of the powerful. They are also a cause of inequality and development aggression.
tonylavs.bsky.social
Some of these oligarchs even fund their own political parties and have their tentacles all over the legislative, executive, and some say even judicial branches.