Atty. Marlon Anthony R. Tonson

Biography

Marnie holds journalism and law degrees from the University of the Philippines. While taking up law, he worked in the Legislative Journal Service of the Senate of the Philippines as a Journal Officer (Supervising Legislative Staff Officer I), and wrote for the GMA-7 television coverage of the national elections held in 1995, 1998, and 2001. He also worked as a consultant for IBC-13 television. For the GMA-7 coverage of the impeachment trial of President Joseph Estrada, Marnie wrote material for the television anchors and, yes, even had to explain what "gobbledygook" meant to television producers while on live broadcast (not on-camera, of course). After passing the Bar, Marnie worked in the Public Information Office of the Philippine Supreme Court as an SC Chief Judicial Staff Officer. Before resigning in 2005 in view of more literary pursuits, he served as the first editor-in-chief of the Court News, an official monthly publication of the Supreme Court. Marnie has just recently published another book entitled Press Freedom Handbook for Filipino Journalists, the first in his Philippine Civil Liberties series aimed primarily at a non-legal stakeholders audience so that they will find out that the Law really is on their side.