‘Scrooge of Congress’ remembered in social media for greatness, humor

Senator Joker Arroyo's colleagues in the legislature and in the legal profession took to social media on Wednesday to pay tribute to the lawmaker and former human rights lawyer.

Arroyo's colleague and friend, Rene Saguisag, confirmed on Wednesday the passing of the reputed "Scrooge of Congress" following what he called a failed heart surgery in the US.

That he was being hailed by netizens in the social media is somehow an irony for a man who continued to write his political statements in longhand decades after computer desktops replaced typewriters, sending them via fax to those who still had fax machines.

Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, who had political differences with Arroyo when they were both in the Senate, said goodbye to the man he still called friend.

Farewell... Sen Joker, a political foe, a personal friend, and a fellow anti-pork advocate. Rest in peace.

— panfilo lacson (@iampinglacson) October 7, 2015

Arroyo and Lacson didn't use their entitlements under the Priority Development Assistance Fund during their two terms in the Senate that ran from 2001 to 2013.

Arroyo didn't use his pork barrel fund allocations even during his three terms as Makati representative from 1992 to 2001.

Opposition leader Vice President Jejomar Binay, a colleague of Arroyo's in representing human rights victims during martial law, mourned his passing.



Senator JV Ejercito and Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te remembered his laughter.

Joker Arroyo had a great sense of humor. I know because he hired me to be his lawyer for SC cases when he was in Congress. Salamat, sir.

— Theodore Te (@TedTe) October 7, 2015

Tony La Viña, the Dean of the Ateneo School of Government expressed his regret over the death a "great man."

—Jessica Bartolome/NB/JST, GMA News