The right to not know
and be applauded

The lawyers are now "detained" in L'Fisher Hotel for four straight days, from October 11 to 14, morning to afternoon, for the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education, required by the Supreme Court so that lawyers can continue to practice law. We expect, therefore, some peace and quiet in the City and in the Province with lawyers in detention.

The seminar fee is P5,000, which covers snacks, lunch, and hand-outs. Many lawyers grumble at the fees but some accept this as an inescapable duty.

For this writer, the MCLE is a chance to hear legal giants and luminaries. One such star is the eminent Dean Froilan Bacungan, the living encyclopedia of Labor laws. After a brilliant lecture, he was asked a series of questions in the open forum, where he replied to the first, "The question is so good, I do not know the answer."

When the interpellator persisted with follow-up questions, the intellectual giant said, "Perhaps, later, we can sit down together and find the answer to your questions," bringing the house down in hearty laughter.

Well, in life, sometimes, even the most learned ones do not know all the answers. Or, at least, they can pretend not to know, preferring perhaps that you buy their very copious books and voluminous treatises?

At any rate, at the age of 80, with more than half a century of contribution to the study of law, the hundreds of lawyers at L'Fisher forgave the eminent dean with an ovation for not having answered a single question asked of him. The lesson is, you have to earn the right not to answer questions, and Dean Froilan Bacungan has certainly earned that right.

***

Which is a different case if you are not Dean Bacungan. A story was told at the seminar of a lawyer, whose wife clobbered him with a frying pan on the head when she discovered the name of a woman in her husband's jacket pocket. Asked who the woman was, the lawyer-husband said that two days ago he went to the race track and betted on a horse with the name of a woman. A few days later he was hit with the frying pan again. "What did you do that for?", protested the husband. His wife replied, "Your horse called you on your cell phone!" You see?

***

On a more serious and sadder note, Justice Magdangal de Leon, who used to be an Assistant Solicitor General, informed us that he is saddened to see the hardest-working Sol Gen ever leave the government service. This Sol Gen was given only two weeks to study two cart loads of documents and papers on the coco levy fund case, which was worth billions of pesos. This Sol Gen practically devoured the papers with his staff, working on weekends without overtime pay, and mastered the case.

His mastery paid off, because when he argued that the coco levy funds were public funds, the Supreme Court was convinced.

Justice de Leon informed us further that true enough, this punishing devotion to his work exacted such a toll on the health of this Sol Gen, so that when he said he is retiring from public service for health reasons, he was telling the truth.

Our only sorrow is that we cannot hold on to honest, very hardworking, sacrificial, patriotic, and brilliant public servants like him for long.

***

PGMA has rewarded the LGUs for their loyalty to stand by her in her greatest hour of crisis. This is one of the fruits of pragmatism in public office, especially for local officials who have to rely heavily on Malacanang for their survival.

Our only hope and prayer that these monies, which mostly come from local government units themselves, will be put to good use.

***

One interesting news this week is the debate in the Supreme Court on whether the Senate was right in citing National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales in contempt for not answering its questions, detaining him in the process. This hearing, which is separate from the issue of whether Executive Order 464 is Constitutional or not, will nonetheless affect the latter, and will have far-reaching effects in our system of government. Which will prevail, insulation against the so-called "politics of insult" prevailing in legislative investigations, or the right of a co-equal branch to know the truth? We wait and see.

***

While the world and the country continue with its politics and squabbles, nature is quietly making a statement in clear and unequivocal terms. Floods, typhoons, and hurricanes here, forest fires there, and earthquakes elsewhere. America, especially, has been on the receiving end of many of these disasters.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ and Paul spoke of "the last days" with its "signs of the times". Is this it?

It will not hurt to check Scriptures out.*