PEOPLES' LAWYERING:
A TIME FOR NEW CHALLENGES,
A PROPER TIME FOR RENEWAL
Keynote Speech on the Occasion of the 10th Founding Anniversary of the
Union of Peoples' Lawyers of Mindanao (UPLM)
12 September 2015
Cagayan de Oro, Philippines
by:
Edre U. Olalia
Secretary General
National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL)
I. LOOKING BACK
Ten years ago, we had the distinct honor and privilege of attending and witnessing the birth of the Union of Peoples' Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM). UPLM trailblazed and preceded the formalization of the largest and, we may immodestly say, very respected and highly credible nationwide voluntary association of human rights lawyers, law students, paralegals and legal workers under the National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL) which will be celebrating its 8th Founding Anniversary on September 16.
We were so inspired, envious even, of UPLM that when we founded the NUPL, we were naturally infected by the outstanding and emotional issue of the crucial position of the apostrophe in the term and concept "peoples," debating passionately whether to place it before the "s" or after the "s".
We were all very small, young and idealistic ten years ago. Now we are not so small, not so young but the idealism and the fire in the belly is still there, perhaps tempered now by challenges and realizations.
Ten years ago, the UPLM was trailblazing. Ten years ago, the UPLM in many senses had also started passing on the baton to new, young lawyers as well.
Since its formation, the UPLM has established itself as a respected and formidable human rights
lawyers' organization, taking on important cases and lending its voice and credibility to promote and advance the people’s agenda.
It has for its membership of course the illustrious and legendary Atty. Frederico Gapuz. We fondly remember his great contribution to the advancement and defense of human rights, and the articulation through his life of what it is to be a people’s lawyer. He has inspired a generations of people’s lawyers who will carry on what he has started.
It is time to congratulate the UPLM for its numerous successes and contributions through the years. We share our collective efforts, challenges, victories and even frustrations over various cases and issues.
Among many others, it was UPLM that first successfully tested the much-hyped writ of amparo. It was also UPLM lawyers themselves that were the first objects of attack of vilification. It was and is UPLM that was and is at the forefront of the search for justice for the Maguindanao massacre, the Mamasapano incident, and of the likes of Rebelyn (Pitao).
It was UPLM lawyers that helped or facilitated in the release of prisoners-of-war or POWs and actively engaged in the peace process through its principled positions. It was - and is - UPLM that joined the people in opposing militarization, in defeating trumped up charges and Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation or SLAPP, in standing by human rights defenders under attack, in filing countercharges against rights perpetrators, in conducting useful fact-finding missions on various rights violations, and in thoroughly documenting the same.
And of course, it was the UPLM that has defended with inimitable zeal and competence the continuous stream of political prisoners in Mindanao.
Now Mindanao is again in the national and even global radar with the Haran attacks, the practically genocidal attacks on our brothers and sisters Lumads, the cold-blooded murders of Tatay Emok (Samarca), Dionel (Campos) and Bello (Sinzo), the attacks on schools, and the massive and vicious forced evacuations and dislocations of communities in Talaingod (Davao del Norte), Lianga (Surigao del Sur) and Pangantucan (Bukidnon). It was and is UPLM that is also helping fight the toxic aerial spraying in Sarangani.
At the national level in NUPL, we have kinship over cases and issues of common concern and interest. We sought that the marauders of our heritage on Tubbataha be made accountable. In EDCA, we stood tall defending our sovereignty and dignity.
We protested when pregnant Andrea (Rosal) was thrown in jail and then we wept and raged when her baby daughter died, even as as this soulless government deprived her of basic human compassion just as it let plunderers go on silly furloughs and medical tourism escapades. Andrea is rightfully and finally free now after disentangling herself from the legal harassment she suffered.
Such double standard happens everywhere, even in the improvident grant of bail to Col. Kapunan, fingered for the ghastly
torture and brutal murder of Ka Lando (Olalia) and Ka Leonor. And of course the release of irrepressibly maleficent yet powerful and influential characters like Martial Law implementor Sen. Enrile.
We tried to impeach the President for betrayal of the public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution on substantial grounds for the pork barrel outrage even as pretentious sycophants in Congress massacred us through sheer tyranny of numbers .
At great risk, we ran again and again and again to heed the call for succor of political prisoners like the Tiamzons and many others politically persecuted through legal hocus pocus even as we objected to the insult of appointing a woman in uniform to head a compensation body which should make amends to victims by her kind.
With mixed feelings, the poster boy of impunity Gen. Palparan was a sort of victory for his victims and rights defenders but the special treatment he relishes and condoned by this government aggravates the intense, furious & tortuous legal battle ahead. We also saw how the search for justice for Jonas Burgos remains protracted and a long arduous fight of grit and wills.
But we share in the humbling reward of political and legal victories as well, false charges dismissed, clients set free, unscrupulous reptiles donning titles of prosecutors brazenly bilking money from litigants jailed, and power rate hikes stalled despite a battalion of hotshot lawyers and law firms that money can buy called by big industry not to budge an inch.
Yet not at no cost. We lost our beloved Coni (Brizuela) in the Maguindanao massacre and we all miss her. We lost Rudy (Felicio) who was peppered with bullets while amidst his urban poor clients in Antipolo. Cathy (Salucon) still faces serious threats for being a "thorn in the neck" of the military for defending political prisoners in Isabela.
Looking back, we may say we fought the good fight.
And we fought for the right reasons.
And we fought in a fair and honorable manner.
II. HOW IS IT OUT THERE?
Ten years after UPLM was formed and eight years after NUPL was convened, is people's lawyering still relevant? Are we still needed?
How is it out there?
We can cull from the findings in the Verdict of the recently concluded International Peoples' Tribunal (IPT) held in Washington D.C. last July.
According to Karapatan, From July 2010 to June 2015 under the administration of President Aquino, there were 262 victims of extrajudicial killings (EJKs), 27 victims of enforced disappearances (EDs), 125 caes of torture, 293 illegal arrests without detention, 723 with detention, 537 political prisoners (at least 29 of whom are ailing and 44 are elderly), 135, 599 victims of threats, harassments and intimidation, 29,684 victims of restriction and violent dispersal of public assemblies, and 60, 155 of forced evacuation.
Among others, two datus or local tribe leaders (Datus Mansimuy-at and Mansuladlad) and a minor (Bandam Dumanglay) testified at the IPT upon the harassment and atrocities committed against their communities.
According to IBON International, these are the facts and figures:
• 66 million Filipinos are poor. They live on just Php125 (US$2.80) or less per day. They are the Filipino farmers, fisherfolk, workers, small-scale traders, vendors, domestic workers and other informal sector workers;
• 4.3 Filipinos are million unemployed and 7.9 million underemployed;
• 4 out of 10 or 44% of the workers are non-regular or agency-hired workers, over six out of ten or 63% do not even have written contracts; four out of ten or 40% employed Filipinos are in just part-time work with very low pay and no benefits;
• the average daily basic pay of millions of Filipino workers nationwide increased by less than Php5 (Php4.50) or just 1.7% between 2005 and 2014;
• there are 10.2 million overseas Filipinos in 2013;
• 4,508 overseas Filipino workers were deployed every day because only 2,800 jobs were generated at home.
• 7 of 10 peasants are still landless;
• a third of landowners own or control more than 80% of agricultural land;
• the wealth of the 10 richest Filipinos has more than tripled under the Aquino administration from Php630 billion in 2010 to Php2.2 trillion in 2015 (250% increase);
• the net income of the country's some 260 listed firms on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) rose from Php438 billion in 2010 to Php583 billion in 2014 (33% increase);
• the net income of the country's Top 1000 corporations grew from Php804 billion in 2010 to Php1.0 trillion in 2013 (26% increase);
• two-fifths (40%) of approved investment in the Philippines in the last decade-and-a-half is foreign rather than Filipino, not yet counting the use of dummy corporations;
• the Philippines paid out over US$36 billion in profit remittances since 1980 which is on top of over US$178 billion in debt servicing;
• the Philippines has exported over US$43 billion worth of mineral exports since the 1970s;
• there was 115% increase in profit of mining companies between 2010 and 2014;
• some 98% of Philippine domestic production is exported;
• around 80,000 babies still die of preventable diseases every year;
• 6 out of 10 Filipinos die without seeing a doctor;
• power privatization has made electricity in the Philippines the most expensive in Asia, even more expensive than in Japan or South Korea;
• water privatization has made water in the Philippines the third most expensive after Japan and Singapore;
• rail transport privatization has caused fares to increase from 50-100%;
• 61,000 houses of urban poor families with some 305,000 individuals were demolished and displaced under the Aquino administration;
• over 1.2 million homes were damaged or destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) but the government only built 364 homes; and
• one million families with 5.6 million people was severely affected by Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) but less than 220,000 families were given livelihood support.
The IPT also found gross violations of the rights of the people to national self-determination and liberation through the imposition of the US war of terror and US military intervention; as well as the perpetration of crimes against humanity and war crimes; misrepresentations of the people's right to national liberation and self-determination as “terrorism” and the baseless “terrorist” listing of individuals, organizations and other entities by the US and other governments.
There will be many more Mary Jane Velosos, Cadapan-Empenos, Raymond Manalos, Jonas Burgoses, Andrea Rosals, persecuted peace consultants, privatizations of government hospitals, rate hikes of public utilities, foreign intervention,
The list is endless unless exploitation and oppression is not ended.
In other words, as we would greet participants in a fit of levity in gatherings like these as clients, we will always have would-be clients.
There are also so much countersuits that need to be filed to deliver the message and give the perpetrators of human rights a lesson in a language they understand.
Also, there are just so many law students to encourage, so many foot lawyers to invite, and so many paralegals to train.
We have to realize that 90% of Filipinos can avail of services of practically only 1/2 % of the lawyers population who are into people's lawyers. But 10% comprising the political and economic elite can practically avail of the 99.5% who are non-people's lawyers.
III. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE (LEGAL) SYSTEM?
In our own supposed comfort zone, what is really wrong with the legal system, particularly with respect to violations of civil and political rights? From our experience, these are the factors or elements that cause, engender or aggravate rights violations:
1. Framework of violations
The Philippine government's rehashed counterinsurgency programs patterned or inspired by the US government's dirty war against liberation movements and groups engaged in resistance, whether armed/underground or the legal mass movement.
2. Official bias against dissenters
The prevailing government or official mindset or bias against dissent, activism, criticism and proposals by or against progressive activists, the so-called militant organizations and the revolutionary Left.
3. Wrong or corrupted notion of human rights
The mistaken or wrong notion and understanding of the concept of human rights: Who guarantees them, who is responsible for their protection, and who can commit violations?
4. Selective priorities/justice
The present government's priority ostensibly directed against showcase graft and corruption charges but never really so much on issues of human rights and accountability for rights violations.
5. Condonation of violators
Routine promotions of high and top-ranking military and police officials that are facing serious and credible charges of human rights violations despite opposition from victims, families and human rights defenders.
6. Sloppy work and/or complicit acts of police and other investigative arms
Police investigation that is invariably sloppy and unprofessional and which is used for cover-up to pass off the blame to the victims themselves, the progressive organizations or the armed movement. At best, evidence is testimony-dependent and not scientific.
7. Legal Superstructure and milieu engendering violations
a. The judicial system and procedure is tedious, cumbersome, protracted , slow and dirty.
b. At most times, the legal and judicial process and procedure is inaccessible to the poor and exploited, that is why justice is elusive or very much delayed (if at all attained in time) especially in cases of violations of human rights.
c. There are deep-seated problems or bad habits like endemic corruption and use of connections, influence, power and all forms of personal, professional, political, cultural or social ties that bind - palakasan, lakaran and gapangan.
d. Almost always, in cases of charges against the powerful, rich and influential or those who have connections, it is the small fry that gets the axe and the big fish/es get away.
There is a consistent double standard in the treatment of cases and application of the law.
There is no certain and credible arrest, prosecution and conviction of superior military or police officers for human rights violations.
e. There is no immediate, speedy, meaningful and effective justice to all victims of human rights violations including adequate compensation, indemnification, restitution, rehabilitation and mechanisms for this purpose.
f. Many rights are "paper rights," rendering legal remedies inadequate or ineffective.
Elegantly-worded constitutional rights and social justice provisions and pro-human rights provisions in some laws are mere paper rights in reality.
International human rights instruments, to which the Philippine government is a party or signatory to almost all, are given mere lip-service.
Recent pro-human rights laws or instruments like those against torture and disappearances, the Martial Law Compensation law, the remedy of the writ of amparo, as well as the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian law or CARHRIHL are either unimplemented, diluted or circumvented.
The remedies of the privilege of habeas corpus and the writs of amparo and habeas data have proven to be largely ineffective or unutilized to abate rights violations for extrajudicial killings and disappearances as they have many loopholes and are even mocked or corrupted by State security forces.
g. Repressive laws and jurisprudence remain in force, some dating back to the Marcos dictatorship, and legislative, administrative, executive and judicial acts that either:
i. openly violate human rights;
ii. disguise violations of human rights; or
iii. merely formally recognize protection or promotion of human rights but in practice actually contribute to the engenderment of such violations
(e.g. Public Assembly Act, Ilagan vs. Enrile doctrine, Human Security Act, Cybercrime Law)
f. False or trumped-up charges through legal hocus-pocus are systematically filed and illegal arrests are made through disingenuous means:
i. mere substitution of names of generic John and Jane Does in the charges with the real names of persecuted individuals;
ii. mere naked allegation in the police report of the warrants of arrest that Person A is also Person B;
iii. concocted statements of professional and roving witnesses that are executed or produced after the filing of previous ones ("remembering by installment");
iv. ridiculous assertion that those being charged have unknown addresses to prevent them from receiving notices to be able to defend themselves; and
v. mechanical insertion or intercalation of a real name into a list of names of those previously charged.
All these realities in the legal sphere, among others, perpetuate and engender human rights violations in general, and attacks and impunity for such attacks against members, leaders and organizations or movements seeking fundamental changes in society in particular.
IV. REAFFIRMATION OF PEOPLES' LAWYERING
This is the milieu and context why people's lawyering remains ever relevant, useful and necessary and why people's lawyers never really die, they just live on and multiply in the course of the struggles of the people.
We should ensure consolidation of our ranks. While we are proud of a good number of members, we should ensure that each one of us contributes something, however small, depending on our capacities. Not all members are created equal; thus we are called to exert additional efforts in this task.
It is imperative for our organization to remain relevant, not just inside the courtroom, but also in the court of public opinion. Thus we should ensure that we are up-to-date with respect to national and local issues that greatly affect and impact on the rights of the people, and immediately publish principled and astute, but in accessible language, position papers or press releases.
As lawyers, the masses look up to us to interpret the law for them. But as people’s lawyers, we interpret and apply the law in favor of the people. It is our duty to educate the public as well.
We must affirm our vow and commitment to lawyering for the people. We must revisit and refresh the principles that unite us.
To many of you, there is nothing new with these points as you live by them daily. But we have to look at them with fresher minds, fresher approaches, and with fresher and fiercer vigor.
What are the principles and aspirations that bind us?
As the venerable Romy T. Capulong (RTC) taught us, the people's lawyer renders not only competent professional services. She/he has the commitment to social change as an essential component of such services.
We are also part of the movement for change and are not mere plumbers called upon when there is a problem. Or as RTC said, we are not mere candies placed in the pocket, only to be remembered when needed or desired or useful. We must not be seen as part of a quick fix in a legal fastfood drive-through. We have our grounding in the movement.
We do not limit ourselves to the the usual and generally accepted interpretation and use of the law to protect and uphold the interests of our client/s.
For instance, we do not worship and absolutely believe uncritically the notions of "dura lex sed lex," "sub judice," or the abstract "cold neutrality of an impartial judge."
We know that the law at this point is essentially the expression of the collective interests of the elites that monopolize power and economic resources.
Thus we do not limit ourselves to an absolute acceptance of the law and the prevailing legal system.
We must be creative and take a critical view of the law and what the law should be from the perspective of the poor and exploited client. We are practitioners of the metalegal tactics advocated by the great ka Pepe Diokno. We must turn a bad thing into a good thing by filing string test cases and "outwitting the enemy," as it were.
And though we all have feet of clay, we must strive to have a very high degree of personal integrity and professional commitment because we want to change the many things that are wrong in our society.
As RTC exhorted us, we must have the passion and dedication, and for some of us, even ready 24/7 and willing to forego weekends and holidays if need be.
We must continue to adhere and practice these principles and causes and value them over and above any personal interests and material agenda.
And as our esteemed Dean Gapuz had also articulated, we do not confine ourselves in thecourtroom. "We have to go out and be with the people, to explain to them these issues so that they will know and stand up for their rights."
In this connection, perhaps the current case case of Mary Jane Veloso is illustrative and emblematic of how we practice people's lawyering.
This case demonstrated in the concrete the meaning and practice of people's lawyering, with mass organizations and the clients themselves involved in the process not only of legal tacticizing and popular and broad campaigns but the mutual understanding of the reasons and roots for this social malaise.
Most importantly, the Mary Jane case highlighted the importance of launching mass campaigns along with the legal campaign to save a migrant worker in distress. The protests, appeals and vigils held in Mary Jane’s case ensured that the ensuing public discourse would be elevated to a critique of the very system that has pushed millions of Filipinos to look for greener pastures abroad, no matter the risks involved.
The power of such collective actions in the Philippines, amplified by the calls of local migrants’ rights activists in Indonesia, correctly prompted Indonesia President Widodo to take a second look at the case of Mary Jane. The mass actions successfully demystified the “modern day hero” rhetoric of the government and revealed the ugly face of its labor-export policy, which turned people into commodities to be traded abroad and then abandoned when in distress.
In the end, the crucial question when we handle our cases is "FOR WHOM ARE WE DOING ALL THESE FOR?"
Since "we have brave clients, they deserve brave lawyers" as RTC said with pride.
He said that people's lawyering is a matter of choice out of commitment to serve and help the poor in their struggle. But we have to make it also a viable alternative especially for law students and young lawyers. After all, RTC testified credibly, clearly and convincingly that it will be "a treasured journey of self-fulfillment and rewarding achievements."
The most ethical thing we as lawyers can do is use our education, training, skills, experience and wisdom to be of service to the many who need us.
In our challenge to the new 1,126 lawyers this year and for those taking the Bar in a couple of months, we challenge them to:
"Join us to help seek justice.
Make all motions to raise the bar of service to society.
Enter your appearance as a lawyer for the many. They are waiting, expecting and in need. You can help change things.
Argue and stand your ground amidst so much impunity and misery.
Object to temptation, compromise, opportunism and hypocrisy.
Pray that you can proudly wear that much-coveted title that you deserve.
Base every move on truth and justice.
Submit more law to those who have less in life.
Welcome to the bar of reality."
Using another apt cliche', take the "road less travelled by".
We must have the competence, discipline, integrity, and commitment. We must have the passion and the rage. Yet we should keep and nurture our sense of humor even as we must be humble and open to be humbled.
Then and only then can we perhaps declare without contradiction that we may not be the best lawyers that money can buy, but we certainly have the best lawyers money can not buy.
V. CHALLENGE AND LOOKING FORWARD
We thus sound the clarion call to engage a legal and judicial system that remains basically an abstraction to many. We yearn for a justice system that is simple, fair, speedy, accessible and consistent. Rights victims in particular should be given concrete and expedient justice, not discombobulated, tedious and cumbersome processes that allow perpetrators to play the fiddle while the poor and exploited are burning.
And of course we had our share of triumphs and defeats, of trials and challenges, of plaudits and even diss. So, why are we doing this? Because oppression and repression are there. And as lawyers for the people, we will help conquer.
We will continue to fight and stand by the poor, the downtrodden, the voiceless. In triumph or defeat, we will keep on knocking and pounding, "pushing the parameters" of the limited and limiting prevailing law and the legal system, despite the frustrations, challenges, contradictions, and conflicts.
Till we slay the dragons of penury and injustice.
We will not tire. Too many are dependent and depending on us. Will we fail them? And as a favorite client reminded us, the oppressors and exploiters do not get tired oppressing and exploiting, why should the oppressed and exploited get tired fighting?
As RTC again said, struggling for justice is like pedaling a bike. You need to keep on pedaling or else you fall.
Today is indeed a remarkable milestone for the UPLM (and in a few days for NUPL as well). Let us celebrate and continue our noble duty for the people and produce more people’s lawyers the likes of Attys. Gapuz, Ilagan, Brizuela and other great trailblazing lawyers of Mindanao.
It is really a choice you made. Either be mere passing immaterial specks in the universe in the epoch of time, to be outlived even by styrofoams and plastics and buildings and monuments. Or make your life relevant and be boulders that will build a better society for the many.
Be the Davids of struggle against the Goliaths of oppression and exploitation.
We will fight back.
We will go against the tide.
In the end, it is worth the choice.
It is worth the fight.
It is worth the struggle.#
Mabuhay! Padayon!
