Passion For Justice

By: Justice Pompeyo Diaz

We are not here to celebrate the successful ending of your course in the law. We are here to
send you on your way because from here, you will commence your profession in the law. We
hold these commencement exercises, therefore, to say good-bye to you and to wish you well
on your journey.

The closer a man approaches the sunset of his years, the more often his mind returns to the
remembrance of things past. For to every man, if he lives long enough, there comes a point
in life when he realizes, not without sadness, that there may no longer be time to climb new
mountains. And that is when dreams begin to yield to memories as if reliving the past can
somehow fill the void left by the flight of dreams.

It is more than fifty years since I sat where you sit now, an acolyte at the altar of the law. But
the lengthening shadows of life only make the recollection of it as fresh and clear as if it were
only yesterday.

I was given the privilege of addressing you one last time. I will do so, no longer as your
teacher, but as a friend. But let me take a vantage point from which I can speak with some
candor. As your own sun is rising in the east, mine has long since passed the point of high
noon, and in the gathering dusk, I see you within the perspective of time. There are
landmarks which I have beheld but which are still hidden from your view.

Some forty years ago, I took my oath of office as judge of the Court of First Instance for the
Province of Rizal in the chambers of a Justice of the Supreme Court. This was my first
appointment to the bench. You know I had several. It was an occasion for deep pride in my
family especially when the appointee was hardly thirty-five years of age and the Justice
administering the oath to him happened to be his own father.

After the oath-taking, my father took me in his own car and drove me to the courthouse in
Pasig. He led me into the building, up the stairs, to the second floor, and walked with me to
the door of the sala which would now be mine. He stood by the door and let me enter alone.
I did, and I went straight to my desk. There I saw a piece of paper upon which were written in
Latin, in my father’s own handwriting, those awesome words which must have shaken the
walls of the Senate of ancient Rome: Let Justice be done, though the heavens fall!

In a lifetime devoted to the study of the law, these words still do not fail to stir up in me
emotions which should have long since been spent, memories which should have long since
been put to sleep, questions which should have long since been laid aside. What is the law?
What is the truth? What is justice?

What is justice? It is to render to each man what is his due. What is the truth? It is that which
you seek, and keep on seeking, so that you may render to each man what is his due. What
is the law? It is the instrument by which you discover that which you have been seeking so
that you may render to each man what is his due.

The answers seem such simple directives for everyone to follow. The reality, however, is
different. For the law may be twisted to hide the truth in the same way that the truth may be
distorted to ridicule justice. There are men in any society who are so self-serving that they try
to make the law serve their selfish ends. In this group of men, the most dangerous is the
man of the law who has no conscience. He has, in the arsenal of his knowledge, the very
tools with which he can poison and disrupt society and bring it to an ignoble end. Against
such a man, you must be fearless and indomitable, since to grant him victory is to deny
yourselves the sanctity your oath and the grandeur of your vision.

Such men I have met in my lifetime, both in the courtroom and outside it. Society’s declared
protection against such predators is the court of law before which all men are presumed to
stand equal, whether mighty or weak. The integrity of the court is the foundation upon which
a just society to established. Without this integrity, the vicissitudes of history will blow society
towards the treacherous reefs of destruction and suck it into the whirlpool of oblivion.

A man of the law with a conscience on the other hand, is the means by which a nation
fashions for itself a just, orderly and civilized society, where the least of its citizens can stand
in his human dignity and where justice is the yardstick by which the citizen measures himself
in his relationship with others and with his God.

Yet, a man of the law should have more than just a conscience. Conscience, too, can be
dulled by exigencies in one’s life. He may just seek a livelihood from the law. Then no matter
how financially successful he becomes, and no matter how much expertise he acquires in
the law and its practice, he remains no more than a craftsman. He rises no higher than the
humble or mechanic from whom we expect nothing beyond an honest day’s work and an
honest charge for work performed, and to whom we would not dream of looking for
leadership, guidance, and inspiration. He reduces law to a trade and himself to a mere
huckster of legal skills.

What a man of the law should possess is a passion for for the truth, a passion for justice.
This passion should be of such a magnitude as to give him the power to stand firm when
those around him seem to be going mad. It should be of such solidity as to grant him the
strength to stand alone when all else is turning into dust. It should be of such perseverance
as to infuse him with a loneliness that only those who have a vision can endure. It is a
passion to keep alive that eternal challenge that justice must be done whatever be the cost.

You are not only men of the law. You are men of vision. Underlying all that you have learned
here at the Ateneo the never ending theme of passion for the truth, of passion for justice.
Your vision is forged here, and that vision is what makes you unique among your peers. You
do not know yet what life has in store for you, but never sacrifice your vision on the altar of
expediency. For without this vision, you shall become hollow inside, you shall become men
without souls preying on the innocence and helplessness of your fellowmen. You shall
become the unscrupulous auctioneers of history whose honor is on the block, ready to go
the highest bidder.

On the other hand, if truly you remain faithful to your vision, then you are a boon to society.
You will give without favor upon your fellowmen, sifting through facts to arrive at the truth,
seeking truth to render justice. The mighty and the weak shall stand naked before you, for
they shall draw strength from your knowledge of the law and from your commitment to the
truth. Then and only then, shall justice truly prevail and upon this earth will shine a place of
heaven. For what is justice but an attribute of God Himself?
Walk firm, therefore, and walk with courage, upon this path you have chosen. Let your vision
guide you. The law is a noble profession, and it is professed by noble men. See to it that you
earn that nobility by acting as your fellowmen’s shield and protector against injustice and
oppression.

As future lawyers, you have your tasks cut out of you. You need have no fear that they will
prove too much for you if, in taking them up, you bear always in mind that doubt is the
beginning of wisdom, that humility is the grace of the wise, that compassion is the virtue of
the strong and above all that reason is the life of the law, and that the service of justice,
which is nothing more than the search for the truth, is one of man’s noblest achievements.

Farewell! May you always in your quest for a better world, walk in the shadow of Him who
gave you life and honor.

http://www.mostlawfirm.net/resources/insights/passion-for-justice/

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Indomitable Rene to new lawyers

May I felicitate the new lawyers who took their oaths yesterday in the MOA Arena, thusly:

Compañeros/as, I see that 3,747 of you, 2016 examinees, passed the 2016 bar
examinations.

Now you feel like you are on top of the world, basking in the many-splendored afterglow of a
well-earned achievement. There
will be many big nights on the town, but the mornings after will inevitably bring the cold light
of day, so to say.

What else can one say to you after welcoming you to the guild and expressing the ritualistic
good wishes? Where will you be years from now? Particularly the superior ones? Those to
whom much was given? The driving dream that lifted most of you in your school days was
that the law offers a good, if not the best, way of serving the poor, obscure, oppressed, and
unwashed, to attain a measure of justice. Too often, however, it takes only a few years of
practice, plus a taste of the good life for this consuming passion to sink without a trace in the
deep rugs of a well-appointed law office, amid the staccato clatter of top-of-the-line
thingamajigs and the hum of multi-horse-powered air conditioners.

Cooptation was the word for it in the language of the street-wise radicals of past years.

Who among you, unpublicized and unadvertised, will advocate the causes of the poor or
unpopular condemned by some lynch mob? Not for the experience either, but to be true to a
promise to fight the manipulators and the oppressors in society. Mga naghaharing uri, we
used to cry. The law has often represented the biases of the ruling class.

Some of you, feeling your word is your bond, will possibly stick it out for a while. But,
probably, not many and not for long.

Somewhere down the road the thought of your children going around barefoot, of not going
to expensive exclusive schools, and of you being labeled unsuccessful for not being affluent,
will stare you in the face and bite deeply into your psyche. And then you will kiss a dream
goodbye to join those who defend the rich and the powerful with ruthless efficiency.

In the process you will strengthen, willy-nilly, your clients’ near monopolistic stranglehold on
the country’s finest talents, aggravating the imbalance in the power situation in society.
Mediocrities can go far in our society, but it is the loss of the bright ones—who know the law,
not the judge—that really hurts.

Holmes once said that happiness does not come from material rewards. “[H]appiness,” he
wrote, “I am sure from having known many successful men, cannot be won simply by being
counsel for great corporations and having an
income of fifty thousand dollars.”

“Oh, yeah?” may very well be the retort of the hired guns retained by the oligarchs,
particularly those who had their positions buttressed and reinforced with the installation of
today’s quasi-martial law apparatus in a seeming police state reinforced by militarization.
How naive could Holmes get?

Still and all, we are delighted to welcome you, the new lawyers, to the fraternity (and
sorority). Do achieve, and acquire what you will, but never, never forget the least of our
brethren: Psychic income is something not all the money in the world can buy.

Stay as sweet as you are.

R.A.V. SAGUISAG, Palanan, Makati City

https://www.google.com/amp/s/opinion.inquirer.net/104216/indomitable-rene-new-
lawyers/amp
Lawyers’ ethics
by: Rita Linda V. Jimeno

The struggle to become a lawyer is real. Yet, not a few lawyers squander the privilege of
being a lawyer by committing acts that cost them their license to practice law. Consider what
one has to go through to become a lawyer. First, after hurdling a four-year course, the
journey to finish a law degree in at least four years begins. Some take it for as long as seven
to eight years; others, even longer. Then a six-month review ensues. Finally comes the most
grueling licensure exam in the country, the bar exams. Thousands have to take the bar
exam several times before they finally take their oath as lawyers.

It is therefore unsettling, to say the least, how some lawyers brazenly commit acts that merit
their suspension or even disbarment. In one recently decided case for example, a notary
public notarized a deed of absolute sale fully knowing that his notarial commission had
expired. He was permanently barred from becoming a notary public again and suspended
from law practice for two years. In another recent case, a lawyer desiring ardently to help her
male client obtain a declaration of nullity of marriage advised him that it would be best if the
wife were the one to file the petition to ensure that she would not oppose it. What made the
situation utterly wrong was that, upon payment by the husband of her fees, she made the
petition as lawyer for the wife; forged the signature of her supposed client; and then filed it.
She even obtained a residence certificate for the wife from a place she never lived at. The
wife filed a disbarment case against her. The Supreme Court reminded her as well as all
other lawyers that a lawyer shall not do any falsehood, nor consent to the doing of any in
Court; nor shall he mislead or allow the Court to be misled by any means. She was
disbarred.

Generally, the three most common grounds why lawyers get either suspended or disbarred
are: women (with respect to male lawyers); greed for money; and gross negligence and
incompetence. There are other grounds, of course, for which lawyers are sanctioned such as
the use of foul and gutter language in pleadings submitted to the courts and disrespect for
the courts as shown by a refusal or failure to comply with orders.

Not a few male lawyers have been disbarred for committing bigamy, concubinage or
adultery—committed with a married woman. In these cases the Supreme Court said that “A
lawyer shall not engage in unlawful, immoral or deceitful conduct and shall at all times
uphold the integrity of the bar.” The Supreme Court added that the commission of such
offenses by lawyers exhibit a deplorable lack of degree of morality because they make a
mockery of the institution of marriage.

In another case, this time involving money, a lawyer who was entrusted by his client with the
sale of his real estate property did not remit to his client the proceeds of the sale. When sued
by his client and ordered by the court to return to his client the proceeds of the sale, he
ignored the court’s order, resulting in his disbarment. The Supreme Court said that the highly
fiduciary nature of a lawyer-client relationship imposes upon the lawyer the duty to account
for the money or property collected or received for or from his client.

In several cases, lawyers failed in their duty to their clients, that is, they failed to do what was
incumbent upon them. Some missed numerous deadlines for the filing of required pleadings;
others filed wrong pleadings; still another kept filing motions for extension of time to file the
needed submission only to fail in filing any. The Supreme Court stressed that, as embodied
in the Code of Professional Responsibility, a lawyer shall serve his client with competence
and diligence. He shall not neglect a legal matter entrusted to him and his negligence in
connection with it shall render him liable.

The practice of law commands such a high degree of responsibility, integrity and morality
that it is considered as one of the most challenging and noble professions of all time. Yet,
because many lawyers do not take their oath as lawyers seriously, there has been a
proliferation of jokes that insult and denigrate lawyers and their profession. There has also
been a spate of scandals and wrongdoings involving lawyers not only in recent events but in
the past many years.
This should make law schools rethink the way they teach law students. What should the
thrust of their curriculum be? Is emphasis given more to producing lawyers that will succeed
in prominence and financial standing? Do law schools make students understand that the
profession they have chosen to pursue demands of them uprightness, fairness, a sense of
justice and utmost sense of responsibility to society, the courts and their clients? As for
those who have been disbarred or suspended from the practice of law, should not their
mentors and their parents ask themselves where they went wrong?

http://manilastandard.net/mobile/article/244935

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Cayetano vs Monsod
G.R. No. 100113 | 1991-09-03

Subject:
Commission on Elections, Practice of Law, Qualifications of an Appointive Official

Facts:

President Corazon Aquino nominated Atty. Christian Monsod to the position of Chairman of
the Commission on Elections (COMELEC).

This petition for Certiorari and Prohibition filed by Cayetano prays that the Commission on
Election’s confirmation and subsequent appointment of Monsod be declared null and void
because the latter fails to meet the constitutional requirement of having been engaged in the
practice of law for at least 10 years.

Held:

Modern Definition of the Practice of Law

1. The practice of law means any activity, in or out of court, which requires the application of
law, legal procedure, knowledge, training and experience.

2. In Philippine Lawyers Association v. Agrava, it was stated:

“The practice of law is not limited to the conduct of cases or litigation in court; it embraces
the preparation of pleadings and other papers incident to actions and special proceedings,
the management of such actions and proceedings on behalf of clients before judges and
courts, and in addition, conveying. In general, all advice to clients, and all action taken for
them in matters connected with the law incorporation services, assessment and
condemnation services contemplating an appearance before a judicial body, the foreclosure
of a mortgage, enforcement of a creditor's claim in bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings,
and conducting proceedings in attachment, and in matters of estate and guardianship have
been held to constitute law practice, as do the preparation and drafting of legal instruments,
where the work done involves the determination by the trained legal mind of the legal effect
of facts and conditions

3. To engage in the practice of law is to perform those acts which are characteristics of the
profession. Generally, to practice law is to give notice or render any kind of service, which
device or service requires the use in any degree of legal knowledge or skill.”

4. Atty. Monsod has been a member of the Philippine Bar since 1960, and has been a
member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines since its inception in 1972. He has also been
paying his professional fees as a lawyer for more than ten years.

5. Atty. Monsod’s past work as a lawyer-economist, lawyer-manager, lawyer-entrepreneur,

lawyer-negotiator of contracts, and lawyer-legislator of both the rich and the poor more than
satisfy the constitutional requirement that he has been engaged in the practice of law for at
least ten years.

Judicial review of judgments rendered by the Commission on Appointments.

6. The judgment rendered by the Commission in the exercise of such an acknowledged

power is beyond judicial interference except only upon a clear showing of a grave abuse of
discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction. (Art. VIII, Sec. 1 Constitution).

7. The Commission on the basis of evidence submitted during the public hearings on
Monsod’s confirmation, implicitly determined that he possessed the necessary qualifications
as required by law. This no occasion for the exercise of the Court’s corrective power, since
no abuse has been shown.