Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo has assured that the judiciary will be “dynamic and responsive” to the needs of the people, particularly by the “underserved and marginalized,” for free access to the courts, legal assistance, and dispensation of real-time justice.
“If justice delayed is justice denied, justice kept beyond the reach of the underserved and marginalized is no justice at all,” Gesmundo told the participants to the three-day First Philippine Clinical Legal Education Summit in Taguig City.
The summit, which started last Dec. 1, discussed the legal aid needs of the communities and the services rendered by law clinics which are set up by law schools under their clinical legal education program (CLEP).
“It is not enough for the Court to sit back and passively wait for those who may need our services to find their way to us—the Court itself must go to those in need,” Gesmundo stressed.
Thus, he said: “We need to find new and better ways of delivering on our mandate. We must provide an effective platform for Filipinos from all walks of life to articulate their rights when injustice has been perpetrated, to attain redress and expect fair resolution through judicial action, and to freely partake in the judicial process undeterred by traditional barriers of inequality, such as education, poverty, gender, geography, ethnicity, and even religion.”
“Indeed, the high cost of litigation and lack of publicly accessible information on the courts, judicial processes, and legal aid have always hindered access to the courts,” he lamented.
Citing the history of the mandatory CLEP, Gesmundo said “we primarily had in mind the skills development of our law students, to give them a holistic education by not only expanding the areas of law practice available to them but also giving them the opportunity for the practical application of what they learn in school.”
Also, he said, the CLEP would “enhance the learning opportunities of law students and consequently, create a generation of competent and practice-ready new lawyers.”
He pointed out that by directing the CLEP “towards the benefit of the marginalized sectors of society, we aspired to inculcate among our students the value of legal professional social responsibility and public service, and at the same time, extend the availability of legal assistance to those who do not have the ability and resources to secure the services of counsel.”
“Soon thereafter, we realized that with the final version of the Law Student Practice Rule, we have created a potent tool for national development,” he noted.
“Indeed, through the CLEP we have increased access to justice and gave the poor and marginalized sectors of society an assured place in our judicial system,” he said.
Gesmundo said the Supreme Court (SC) has taken a proactive stance in ensuring that the people’s right to free access to courts and adequate legal assistance “are not denied anyone by reason of poverty.”
He said the Rules of Court guarantee the right of pauper litigants to free access to courts by exempting them from payment of legal fees.
Also, he said, the SC grants the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) regular budget allotments for its legal aid program.
And the two other branches of government, the Legislative and the Executive, have complemented the SC’s initiatives, Gesmundo said.
He cited that Congress enacted Republic Act No. 9999, the Free Legal Assistance Act of 2010, which provides for tax incentives to lawyers and law firms offering free legal services.
The Executive department, on the other hand, “has continuously provided legal aid assistance to the public through the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO).”
But he said that with only 2,427 PAO lawyers in relation to 2,466 trial courts nationwide, aside from appellate and other special courts and quasi-judicial bodies, “these lawyers have their work cut out for them.”
The Chief Justice cited that in 2021 alone, the total number of cases handled by PAO reached 787,124, with each PAO lawyer handling roughly 338 cases that year alone.
“And these numbers, which seek assistance from PAO represent only a miniscule portion of the roughly 17.7 million Filipinos living below the poverty line,” Gesmundo said.
“Indeed, efforts must be increased if we need to put meaning to these basic rights (of free access to courts and legal assistance),” he said.
With the mandated setting up of law clinics by the country’s law schools, the CLEP “adopts a developmental legal aid approach and expands the practice areas of law student practitioners to include activities other than the traditional court appearances.”
“Legal education practically covers all aspects of daily living such as knowing basic human rights, pursuing consumer complaints, avoiding traffic violations and apprehensions, entering into contracts including marriages, and even claiming social welfare benefits,” he said.
“It is hoped that once these 127 school-based law clinics strategically located around the country become completely operational, more communities, especially the geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, will benefit from the legal services and activities that will be undertaken by the law student practitioners,” he added.
TAGS: #SC #CJ Gesmundo #CLEP #Legal aid #Law schools