Atty. Ferdinand Quintos: Bayambangueño Poet/Writer/Human Rights Lawyer of Note

Atty. Ferdinand Quintos: Bayambangueño Poet/Writer/Human Rights Lawyer of Note

Atty. Ferdinand Quintos was born in Bayambang, Pangasinan on October 18, 1942 to Praxcedes L. Quintos and Teodora S. Quintos. He is said to be the 10th child of his father, who had six by his first marriage.

Atty. Quintos was known for being versatile and even a “jack of all trades,” for he was not just an exemplary lawyer, but also an acknowledged poet, painter, and newspaper editor.

He tried writing poetry at a young age, and wrote during his free time. He was a prolific poet, but lost all of his early works as he changed jobs and moved places.

While immersed in work in one of his faraway destinations, he composed short poems on his mobile phone, which he printed in a small volume called “Cellpoems.”

He went into extensive poetry writing, in English, Tagalog, and Pangasinan, and created special poems, such as name poems and alphabet poems, among others. To avoid losing his new works, he compiled them in a book, “Indian Summer Verse of Atty. Ferdinand L. Quintos.”

Quintos held a Bachelor of Arts degree major in Political Science and minor in English. He completed his law studies at Far Eastern University in Manila in 1971.

Quintos was co-writer of a book that annotated the country's 1972 Constitution.

On July 10,1975, he was appointed as an investigator in the Office of the City Fiscal (now Office of the City Prosecutor) of Davao City. He later resigned and went into private practice.

While practicing law, he became a columnist and crossword puzzle constructor of “Peryodiko Dabaw,” the forerunner of Sun.Star Davao and the first daily in Davao City and Mindanao. He afterwards became the paper’s second editor-in-chief.

In January 1990, he joined the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR). He began as a law officer of CHR’s Territorial Office No. XI in Davao City. After a year, he was assigned to head the agency’s Territorial Office No. IX in Zamboanga City. In 1993, he was appointed as Regional Director of the CHR’s Regional Office No. IV in San Pablo City, Laguna. He lectured on human rights subjects in military/police training centers.

While heading the CHR-IV, he was sent as an agency scholar to the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) where he finished Master in Public Management.

Quintos retired from public office in 2006.

From 2012, he had been invited as a member of the Board of Judges of Kurit Panlunggaring, the annual Pangasinan writing competition, an institutionalized program of the Pangasinan provincial government.

Unfortunately, Quintos was diagnosed with gallstones and enlarged prostate in early May of 2015, but he was not permitted to undergo operation by his specialists after his heart condition appeared to be frail. In a Facebook post dated May 27, 2015, he mentioned about his need to undergo heart bypass operation at the Philippine Heart Center, the reason why he went back home.

He died of heart failure in his hometown at the age of 72.

Maria Victoneta, one of his children, remembers her father as silent and deep and who always had listening ears.

He is survived by his wife Elma Victoria and children Moonlight, Maria Victoneta, Maria Victoria, Ferdinand Quintos II, Marianne, Jasmin, and Ferdinand Quintos III.

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(The foregoing statements were lifted, collated, and/or paraphrased from online references. See comment boxes for the links.)