FINDING ANSWERS
More than that of doctors, nurses, engineers, accountants, and other esteemed careers like those in the highly prestigious diplomatic or foreign service, it is the examination for lawyers that generates a lot of hoopla.
The fuzz over results of the 2023 Bar exams released two weeks ago was no exception. The excitement over the results is greatest among those who look up to the soon-to-be lawyers for the potential to change not only their own lives but also to change society for the better.
Indeed, hurdling the rite of passage for those entering the legal profession could be life-changing. It may open up a new perspective of empowerment, and even new horizons of wealth and influence.
For successful Bar examinees, especially those who landed in the Top 10, the triumph is a shining testament to perseverance, discipline, hard work, and faith not only in one’s self but in the Almighty from whom wisdom, enlightenment, and all good things come.
Admiration for Bar passers is quite understandable, for the journey to becoming part of the legal profession can be very challenging. With a passing rate of just 36.77 percent in the latest Bar exams, lower than the 43.47 percent in the previous edition, the path to success can be very tough indeed.
Studying to become a lawyer is never a walk in the park, especially for those who struggle to support themselves throughout law school. I remember those difficult times in the 1970’s when I had to juggle my time as a working student and a student activist.
I took up prelaw studies at the University of Santo Tomas, and law proper at the University of the Philippines. I had to divide my time to earning a living and to the demands of student activism, for extra-curricular activities like being managing editor of The Philippine Collegian, chairman of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines, and member of the Philip Jessup Moot court competition.
As a working student at UP College of Law, I was enrolled in a five-year program. Determined, however, to finish the course in four years, I took additional subjects in my third and fourth year and succeeded to compress the five-year program into four. Fortunately, I passed the bar on my first try.
Being a lawyer is certainly a noble profession. Yet some have a tragic view of the legal profession. They have the belief that “life in the Philippines is dominated by lawyers while those of other countries are shaped by scientists, entrepreneurs, inventors, and visionaries with a direct hand in economic prosperity — unlike the lawyer who ‘lives off the economic value’ produced by others.”
While there are lawyers whose misdeeds and unethical behavior have put a stain on the legal profession, these misfits are not representative of the entire profession. And the Supreme Court, as well as the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, have been doing a good job in weeding out those who do not deserve to be in the roll of attorneys.
As soon as I got my license to practice law, I became deeply involved in upholding human rights. This was in the early ‘80s and it was during that time that I came to first realize the scale of impunity and injustice that can happen when those who are empowered to protect the sanctity of our judicial system let their guard down.
As a human rights lawyer, I saw firsthand the pain felt by a victim’s kin whose anguish knows no bounds as a sense of hopelessness creeps in. That feeling of frustration, disgust, and utter helplessness can be so overwhelming that it can shatter one’s trust in a system where truth and justice should prevail, where crime and punishment ought to go hand in hand.
Even to this day, impunity can be on a rampage. Many of those left behind by victims of summary executions during the so-called drug war are still crying out for redress and injustice.
That vital information can be twisted to hide the truth, in the same manner that truth can be distorted to make a mockery of justice, has been the source of despair for many crime victims who put their faith in our criminal justice system.
The culture of impunity goes on without letup. All these years, uncertainty of punishment, or even of apprehension at least, emboldened criminals to strike from time to time.
That those convicted and supposedly languishing in jail can still orchestrate criminal activities can be quite perplexing to those who have high expectations of our criminal justice system, amid the reality that truth and justice can be so elusive.
Indeed, more needs to be done about crime and punishment in our country. Police, prosecutors, judges, jails, and the community, the so-called five pillars of the criminal justice system really need to work efficiently to identify, apprehend, prosecute, convict, and incarcerate offenders.
Our judicial system needs significant improvement. And the nation’s new lawyers who are brimming with idealism can do a lot in fulfilling the challenge to promote the rule of law “in a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace.” ([email protected])