Lawyer José Manuel Rodrigues passes away

Local lawyer and former lawmaker José Manuel de Oliveira Rodrigues passed away on Jan. 2 aged 70, after a prolonged illness, the family revealed yesterday.

Rodrigues was an appointed lawmaker between 1996 and 2005, and was the president of the Association for Macanese Education (APIM) from 1988 to 2016.

He also served as the president of the board of local public broadcaster TDM from 2012 to 2021.

According to an interview with local magazine Phoenix Skyscape published in 2016, the late lawyer was one of the founders of the Macau Lawyers Association and had been a member of the board for three terms.

Rodrigues was born to a middle-class Macanese family. His father and grandfather were also lawyers.

After graduating from high school in Macau, he studied law in Lisbon, Portugal, before returning to the city and to work in his father’s law firm in 1979.

Speaking to the local magazine, Rodrigues recalled that when he first started his career, he had accepted cases through the government’s legal aid mechanism and would donate the slim remuneration to local sport associations “to help the needy.”

He also recalled that when he was young, his family was like other Portuguese families in Macau. However, due to growing up in Macau, he had naturally learned Cantonese.

Despite his busy schedule, he would spend lunchtimes each day, and all weekends, with his family. AL