MANILA, Philippines – In his memoir Ransomed by Love, human rights and environmental lawyer Tony La Viña chronicles how different loves (for partner, friends, God, philosophy, and the law) gave him grace and direction.

La Viña references the fox from The Little Prince, emphasizing that people need to take responsibility of those they tame.

He quotes Ranier Maria Rilke, Pope Francis, Karl Marx– on living a life of questions, changing the world, and hearing the cries of the earth and the vulnerable.

An Atenean through and through, he repeats this mantra at critical junctures: “Lundagin mo, baby.” (Go for it! Take the leap of faith!)

The following are excerpts from a recent interview for The Green Report. Listen to the full episode here.

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On writing the book first as a way of saying goodbye, and now living with cancer, as a testament to a life of more than six decades: 

La Viña: Yeah, it’s interesting because I did write that as both a goodbye — kind of a long goodbye — as well as not just a goodbye but also a testament. This is what I’d like to leave behind. 

And defiance, actually. ‘Okay, if you’re gonna kill me cancer before you kill me let me do this one last thing.’ And then I thought I was gonna die in six months. I wrote most of the book in six months. I started writing in June, July 2023, and finished more or less the first draft in December.

Then I realized I was alive. Buhay pa ‘ko, ‘di ba? And I might have more time. So now the book doesn’t become a goodbye anymore. And that’s why the title is, ‘An unfinished life.’ But the book is a gift to the next generation that will keep on giving because I’m still here to be interviewed by you. I’m still here to talk to people about the book, especially young people.

This book was written for young people, for the next generation, because what I realized when I was writing the book is that everything that I care about, especially environment and climate justice, is intergenerational.

It’s not going to be done. Ironically, I thought, wow, it’s all right to die. Because even if I live another six months, another year, another two years, another Conference of the Parties after having attended like 20 Conferences of the Parties on climate change, the problem will still be there, right? 

It will not be solved because the next generation needs to take over. So it seemed to me that by being given more time and having written this book, this book is actually a living testament, a living lesson for future generations so that you can learn from me. And guess what? You can even ask me about it, like what you’re asking me now.

On contemplating life choices in his youth: 

La Viña: Yes, because it’s all right to start out with life with your questions, right? And if you notice the first epigram is from the German poet Rainier Maria Rilke.

I couldn’t answer my questions when I was in my 20s, right? But that’s not the point. The point is to live the questions because someday you will find the answers. I’m not going to say I have found the answers.

In fact, my students, many of them have become my friends from philosophy way back, 45 years ago, they still ask me the same questions and I still tell them I actually didn’t know the answer. But it doesn’t matter because that is the answer.

The answer is live the question, right? Live the question well. Live your life passionately. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. If you make mistakes, then learn from them. That book memorializes so many of my own mistakes as a young person.

On working with different groups of people, blocks in the movement, and using his mental health challenges to his advantage: 

La Viña: In climate, I’ve been a government negotiator, a government official implementing things on the ground. I’ve been an activist demonstrating, shouting “Climate justice now!” I’ve been a technocrat, implementing things on the ground. So a whole range. And [an] academic, writing books about it. 

My next book is going to be about climate justice. That will be my obra maestra. I’m starting to write it now after this book is done with Fr. Jett Villarin. We’ll be co-authoring, just the two of us. This is the oldest scientist on climate change in the Philippines and the oldest policy person in, most senior, the oldest. 

The answer is yes. Philosophy and law are the two things that gave me the power to interpret my world. And not only to interpret my world, but to change it. To quote Karl Marx, the point is not to interpret the world, but to change it.

And philosophy gave me that power to use language. Change language games as necessary. I can change my language with progressive people. I understand the language. I can use the language.

When I’m with business, I can change the language. It’s not a chameleon, it’s not plastic. It’s understanding that actually in all of these language games, there’s something common because you’re all human beings. Most people just are not aware about it because they’re just in their own world. 

I put to advantage my mental health issues because, for example: ADHD. I am very inattentive. But that means I can multitask and I can change perspective.

On marriage, friendship, and family:

La Viña: When you get married, see, especially when you have children, you can still walk out, but you have to come back. You have to come back. So from then on, I would come back. Even in my worst moments of selfishness or craziness or madness, I would still come back. And find that there’s joy in being forgiven, you know. There’s joy in that solidarity.

In that book, in that quotation you recited, at that last part, finally I got married. It’s a beautiful wedding kasi 5,000 pesos, right? Because it was in Ateneo, just a garden in Ateneo, cafeteria food. Same weekend the Bayan, the political organization, was being founded. So actually I have this wedding anniversary, 40th wedding anniversary next year together with Bayan’s founding anniversary. 

So lots of politics also, people, activists coming to our wedding, right? And it’s a beautiful wedding that we had. And then right away, the next day, we fly to Camiguin. Like, who does a honeymoon in Camiguin in 1980? Nobody does. There’s no hotel there.

All we did was [land] there, [find] a hut that was for rent in the sea. And we just stayed there for days. Because that’s where we became friends, my wife and I…four years earlier even before we became mag-jowa, as you call that today, magkasintahan, mag-syota is what you called it before. Mag-uyab in Bisaya. 

That’s where we were. We went back to the place where we became friends. Not even partners, just friends where we shared our deepest secrets as friends. And so we went back there to remind us that this was– we started as a friendship.

And in that, I sat there, I [quoted] to my journal, oh I’m here. And this was four years ago, this is where we became friends. And now we’re going to walk together. And I quote a quotation from a Marxist, actually, Christian Marxist: If I do not burn, if you do not burn, if we do not burn, how can shadows become light? – Rappler.com