Hour Before Dawn

The Fall and Uncertain Rise of the Philippine Supreme Court

HOUR BEFORE DAWN takes the reader to what might have been the darkest hour of the Philippine Supreme Court, when its integrity was compromised by the actions of its Chief Justice, who was subsequently impeached, and by a series of highly irregular reversals of its own rulings. 

It reveals a court seemingly subject to political pressure, disbursing funds for questionable purposes, and abetting plagiarism by one of its own members, and yet placing itself beyond criticism even by the country's top lawyers and academics.

It chronicles the most open and contentious clash between the executive department and the Court. But the book is also a record of how a staunchly independent minority within the court stood up for what was right, giving hope for the rebirth and reorientation of one of the country's most vital institutions.