A call to the new lawyers

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The Philippines has just harvested a fresh crop of lawyers, 1,289 of them from the 5,626, who had gone through the grueling bar examinations administered by the Supreme Court last year. One could say this group had gone through the proverbial wringer because of disclosures by members of the committee in charge of the tests that the correction process had been unusually strict. To have survived the tests, therefore, meant that one had to have prepared very assiduously before taking it.

The new lawyers should be welcomed with great hope by their countrymen. There was a time in Philippine history, a not too distant time, at that, when not too many were encouraged to take up law because many of those who had, were finding difficulty in practicing their profession. This was during the era of Martial Law, when the estate had preempted what should have been the duty or rights of lawyers. Then, many lawyers, especially the new ones, found themselves going into other occupations, in order to earn a living.

The law profession blossomed again after the dictatorial regime was ousted, and particularly during the presidency of Corazon Aquino, who gave full reign to the democratic principles the people had enjoyed and practiced before Martial Law. Lawyers again found themselves busy, many in helping those who had suffered or been deprived of their right during the reign of the dictator.

As our new lawyers join the ranks of their elders and begin to practice in the various towns and cities of our country, we hope they become fully aware of their responsibility to see to it that the rights and privileges our people are entitled to, are not taken away or trampled upon, albeit in a more subtle way than in other countries. Recently, we have had some experiences that showed how easily our legal rights can be withheld, and how, even our courts have lost their credibility.

This is the kind of atmosphere they will move into, and we hope and pray that, as the new legal minds to come to the scene, they will do what they can to protect the rights of their fellowmen, and be constantly on guard to preserve and defend the democracy that we, as well as our ancestors, have worked so hard to gain.*