The role of lawyers in a struggling economy  

The lawyers from the six provinces in Region 6 or Western Visayas and from the four provinces in Central Visayas and six provinces in Eastern Visayas are meeting in a three-day convention here in Waterfront Hotel, Cebu City, and they have chosen the theme: "Lawyers Bridging Relevance and Resilience in a Changing World". What then is the role of lawyers in this troubled world and challenging times?

I am one of the plenary speakers and my topic is:" Productivity and Profit with Justice and Equity". I intend to discuss how law, especially labor law and social legislation, can be leveraged in order to become an effective instrument of social amelioration rather than social injustice and oppression. I will also discuss some landmark decisions by the Philippine Supreme Court, whereby the highest court of the land has taken a very strong stand against abuses by employers against their employees, and some cases where the judiciary came into a direct collision course against both Congress and the chief executive. The rule of law has been the bridge that made lawyers relevant to the socio-economic struggles of our nation and people. The chief justice, Alexander Gesmundo is coming to grace this important convention.

In my dissertation, I shall share with the lawyers some true-to-life and factual situations that had been capsulized from the facts in decided cases. I will show them the contrast between the big-time lawyers who are defending the rich tycoons and powerful politicians on the one hand, and the struggling attorneys mostly from the provinces who are helping poor farmers, marginalized homeless urban poor and red-tagged youth, students, peasants, and NGO leaders who are being suspected as enemies of the state and threats to national security on the other hand.

I used to have two students in a top Catholic university in Manila. They were competing for academic honors and I was impressed at their scholastic achievements. I met them after 20 years in a class reunion and what a contrast the two have turned out to be.

One became a well-paid corporate lawyer in a huge law firm in Makati. The other opted to become a PAO lawyer helping workers dismissed from their jobs and tenants ejected from their tilled farms. The corporate lawyer was driven to the reunion venue by a barong-clad driver of an SUV worth millions. The other just hitched a ride with another struggling lawyer who drove a broken-down, second-hand, and worn-out jeep.

I was the main speaker and so I told the 100 or so lawyers, all my former students, about the meaning of success, happiness, and the true purpose of life. I told them that I was getting a six-figure salary as a top executive of a multinational firm. Then one day, I just decided to leave the corporate world, accepted the post as DOLE undersecretary, with a salary equal to 10% of my corporate pay and perks.

I told them that while already an undersecretary, I asked to be demoted to work as a Labor attaché in the three most difficult overseas assignments to care for our OFWs. In Malaysia, I put up a Sunday school where my wife and I taught 500 domestic helpers every weekend on new skills and technology that ultimately qualified them to shift from household work to office and hotel jobs. I also got the confidence of a Malaysian multi-millionaire who sponsored the scholarship foundation I founded. We sent 20 DHs to nursing school, and out of 20, 17 are now full-time nurses working in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Jakarta.

I risked my life rescuing maids who were raped, disfigured, and oppressed in Kuwait. I gave up my Sunday rest days in Taiwan to visit OFWs who were detained for various charges. I raided prostitution dens in Sabah and Sarawak where young Filipinas were made sex slaves.

Sometimes, I ask myself. Why did I, a lawyer, end up as a social worker, a passionate fighter against trafficking and illegal recruitment? Well, I realized that therein lies my true happiness, my true meaning of success. Therein lies my purpose as a lawyer in a struggling nation like the Philippines. This and many others are the stories that I shall tell the lawyers in the convention. I hope they too will find their true purpose and discover true happiness and success.