philippine law register - march 2016 - vol. 1 no. 1

Editorial Team

Amapola Española

Editor-in-Chief

Karla Bernardo

Samantha King

Jose Carlos Marin

Kathleen Tantuico

Gian Carlo Velasco

Board of Editors

Atty. Alfredo Molo III

Atty. Mary Rose Tan

Atty. Bryan Dennis Tiojanco

Atty. Joan De Venecia

Eugene Pedro

Contributors

Prof. Dante Gatmaytan

Atty. Jilliane De DumoFaculty and Alumni Advisers

CONTENTS

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7 11

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33Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno: The Higher Calling

Introduction

Malcolm Hall as a Cultural Property

Expecting the Expected

Vol. 1, No. 1 March 2016

Featured Article

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

On Social Justice and the Filipino Languages

PHILIPPINE LAW REGISTER Vol. 1, No. 1 February 2016

Introduction

The Editors

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PHILIPPINE LAW REGISTER


Found is a word that belies a wealth of meaning. On one hand, it indicates discovery — whether of something once had and then lost, or something hitherto unknown. On the other hand, it points to inspiration, to the moment of creation, to building carefully from the ground up.

When something is found, a search ends, but the founding of something ushers in a new beginning.

It is to this second definition that the word foundations is tethered, and the word foundations is where we draw inspiration for this maiden issue of the relaunched Philippine Law Register. To acknowledge the foundations of the UP College of Law is to see a celebrated institution as the sum of many parts: the students who dictate the law school’s evolution, the alumni who define its contributions to the nation, the professors who instruct them both, and the halls they all call home. It is upon these cornerstones that the College has built the tradition of the grand manner famously etched on its walls, and in this issue, we attempt to examine each of them in a new light.

When we came together to relaunch the Register, we shared a common realization. Certainly, the UP College of Law already boasts of many publications geared towards expanding legal scholarship, all of them set firmly on enriching the legal mind. But there was no definitive avenue for students, professors, and alumni to discuss other pressing subjects with both expertise and heart. Outside the classroom, there was no space established for the UP Law community to learn from each other’s experiences not only as legal scholars, but also as humans and as Filipinos.

This mindset has influenced the relaunch. We have thus dispensed with the traditional notions of reportage — which, at worst, are fleeting and brief, unable to accommodate the nuances that a simple piece of news develops over time.

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Instead, we aimed for deeper, more passionate discussions of current events which were not only informed by a sound understanding of the law, but also made richer by experience and humanity.

The relaunch of the Register is the culmination of months of legwork and brainstorming, writing and revising, debate and compromise. Yet it also lays down the foundation for a venue where the UP Law community can critique, communicate, and ruminate. We have found the space for new kinds of conversations within the UP College of Law. With the founding of the new Register, we hope to usher in new voices and new perspectives, an altogether new beginning.

When something is found, a search ends, but the founding of something ushers in a new beginning.


Malcolm Hall as a Cultural Property

Kathleen Tantuico

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Built in 1941, Malcolm Hall has molded presidents, legislators, judges, nationalists, and philanthropists who fought the everyday battles of their respective advocacies. The building was named after Justice George Malcolm, an Associate Justice of the Supreme

Court of the Philippines, who served as the first dean of the college.

Designed by American-trained Filipino architect Juan Arellano, the same architect who oversaw the construction of the Manila Metropolitan Theater, the Legislative Building, the Manila Central Post Office, and the Jones Bridge, Malcolm Hall exhibits a neoclassical architectural style that suits the country’s tropical climate. The open corridors facilitate ventilation, while the continuous rows of arches allow for the free passage of light and air, making the classrooms bright and cool long before air-conditioners were bought.

Arellano was originally assigned to design the UP Campus before the war. However, only Malcolm Hall and Benitez Hall, the College of Education that mirrors the College of Law, were finished before that time. Hence, his vision for the UP Campus was never fully implemented. This is the reason why Malcolm Hall and Benitez Hall, the first two buildings in the Diliman Campus, project a distinct style that distinguishes them from the rest.

In celebration of its centennial year, a national historical marker was installed at the front façade of Malcolm Hall in February of 2013. A national historical marker is installed by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) to structures that possess a cultural value. With this event, the cultural significance of Malcolm Hall is now officially recorded in the NHCP’s National Registry of Historic Sites and Structures in the Philippines.

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According to the Guidelines on the Identification, Classification, and Recognition of Historic Sites and Structures in the Philippines published by the NHCP in 2011, a national historical marker is installed on structures that possess a demonstrable historical significance and are at least 50 years old and 70% authentic.

Malcolm Hall is classified as a Level II historic structure. This entails “the installation of a historical marker in a historic site or structure that is not declared a heritage zone/historic center [or a] national cultural treasure […] but nonetheless has some historical significance. Such a site or structure may later be elevated to Level I recognition pending further research and re-evaluation.”

Under the Cultural Heritage Law of 2009 (RA 10066), marked structures as declared by the NHCP are also considered important cultural properties and enjoy certain privileges such as priority government funding relative to protection, conservation, and restoration.

Thus, Malcolm Hall is not only a witness to the training of UP lawyers, but also a space in which culture and history converge.

The author consulted Clara Gallardo’s thesis on Juan Arellano and would like to thank Johhan Ararao and Stephen Pamorada of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts-Philippine Registry of Cultural Properties Team and Wilmer Godoy of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.


Expecting the Expected

Karla Bernardo

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Weeks after a 7.8- and 7.3-magnitude earthquake battered Nepal last April and May, fears of the Philippines experiencing the same catastrophes rumbled like an aftershock. Sitting just below the country’s capital region, the West Valley Fault

threatens to crush the nation’s central business and political district. “It’s about time it moved,” experts agree. The last recorded activity occurred in 1658 or about 357 years ago. The fault has a recorded 400-year cycle.

Thus, the conclusion: Because of the irresistible laws of geology, Metro Manila now finds itself directly atop a ticking natural disaster.

What do we know so far?

As mentioned, we know that the West Valley Fault has a recorded 400-year cycle. Based on the reports of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), it shifted four times in the last 1,400 years, with each movement occurring roughly around every 300–400 years.

Two, we know that a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Central Visayas and some parts of Mindanao in 2013, the deadliest of its kind within the last 23 years. The quake affected major cities in Bohol, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Iloilo, Antique, and even Davao. Although it lasted only 30 seconds, it leveled more than 73,000 structures and killed 222 people, aside from leaving 8 missing and 976 injured.

Three, we know that Metro Manila has a population of 34.6 million persons. Moreover, situated in the country’s

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capital city are malls, casinos, hotels, residential areas, major universities, high-rise buildings, and an international airport. The seats of government — the Malacañang Palace, the Senate, the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court — are also located within its vicinity, not to mention the dozens of other governmental agencies and offices.

Four, we know that the country is not a stranger to devastating natural disasters. The Philippines’ capital city is no exception. When Ondoy swept Metro Manila with strong winds and rains that lasted for days in 2009, the entire region was paralyzed for a week. Reeling from an overall state of calamity, it lost power and communication lines and water supply. For a time, the national capital region remained helpless. And this was just a typhoon — a natural phenomenon experienced by the country several times a year.

What more when the Big One erupts?

But a number of things still elude some of us, apparently. How to deal with the Big One is on top of that list.

And alarmingly so.

Just a few months ago, Phivolcs was forced to refute on its Facebook page a claim that a giant quake will hit Metro Manila on the weekend of July 25. This is not the first time such rumors have spread and sowed panic. Numerous times last year, hoaxes about tsunamis and storm surges hounded social media and even went viral through text messaging. This goes to show that many people are still unaware of the fact that predicting the exact date when an earthquake will strike is unscientific or impossible.

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The government, aiming to learn from Nepal’s tragedy, appears to be exerting some effort. To prepare the public for a massive earthquake, it set a Metro Manila-wide drill last July 30. In line with this endeavor, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) assigned various evacuation centers for the different quadrants of Metro Manila. These included the University of the Philippines which, along with the Veterans Memorial Medical Center Golf Course, served as an evacuation site for the Northern Quadrant.

As the Big One could occur at any time, the probability of it happening while we are in school is highly likely. It begs the question: Are we safe inside the campus? Are the walls of Malcolm Hall sturdy enough to shield us from the impact of a huge quake?

Students from the Institute of Civil Engineering developed a pre-earthquake assessment tool in 2013 in order to determine which buildings in UP Diliman were the least vulnerable based on their structural integrity. The Rapid Condition Assessment Tool (RCAsT) used a basic structural score that was modified

Are the walls of Malcolm Hall sturdy enough to shield us from the impact of a huge quake?

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depending on the differences in the attributes of the existing building and its base structure. The scores were derived using fragility curves for locally built structures.

The tool assessed the structural configuration and soil condition of the building, as well as the damage the building had incurred through the years since its construction. It was used to evaluate several buildings in UP, including the three structures in the UP Law Complex: Malcolm Hall, Bocobo Hall, and Espiritu Hall.

All three received favorable ratings. Despite having been built at different periods — Malcolm Hall in 1941 (one of the first in the campus), Bocobo Hall in 1967, and Espiritu Hall in 1983 — each maintained its structural integrity and received no immediate recommendation for repair, rehabilitation, or retrofitting. Notwithstanding minor renovations in the last five years and the formation of small cracks on the ceilings, these buildings were generally considered safe and no further action was necessary to keep them that way. Notable is the fact that all three survived the 1990 Luzon earthquake with hardly a scratch.

While it is comforting to know that the UP Law Complex is structurally intact, logistics is an entirely different affair. In the 2015 Law Student Government elections, concerns were raised if Malcolm Hall had exit plans for the students, faculty, and staff once the Big One struck. Considering that the campus is just five kilometers away from the West Valley Fault, it is alarming why almost nothing has been done to address this issue.

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Even if the UP Law community is housed in a structurally sound complex, who can tell if its walls can withstand a predicted 7.8 to 8-magnitude earthquake? All precautions must be taken to ensure the community’s safety which means demanding from the college officers the measures and strategies necessary in case worst comes to worst.

In a survey conducted in Nepal before their major earthquakes erupted, more than 40% of the respondents said that they would rather blame themselves instead of the government or the architects should a quake destroy their houses and kill their family and friends. Perhaps a manifestation of distrust towards their authorities, this view also offers a glimpse of how earthquake-preparedness campaigns in Nepal could have been improved. The Philippine government is presented with the opportunity to learn from Nepal’s musings. It must look deeply into what the country should do to overcome what seems to be inevitable.


On Social Justice and the Filipino Languages

Eugene Pedro

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2015 was a controversial year for the country’s languages. The Commission on Higher Education began to implement a highly-contested issuance, CHED Memorandum Order No. 10 (CMO 10), which allegedly removed Filipino from the mandatory general education

classes to be taught in higher education institutions in the country. This move triggered protests from the supporters of the national language policy, whether moderates or radicals, who called for the obliteration of the non-Tagalog Filipino languages. A petition anchored on Sections 6 and 7 of Article XIV of the 1987 Constitution impugning the constitutionality of CMO 10 is currently pending in the Supreme Court.

In the same year, the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) aggressively campaigned for the imposition of the Tagalog spelling rules contained in its Ortograpiyang Pambansa on non-Tagalog languages. Ilocanos and Cebuanos, who have long-standing written traditions which have independently evolved, were in the forefront of protests against the said imposition. The KWF claimed that it had the constitutional and legal mandate to defend the imposition; however, it also said that a certain language’s orthography is decided by the people who used that language.

Without delving into the (de)merits of the national language policy and the true nature of Filipino, I ask: What should the relationship among the country’s languages be? Although this essay shall propose a thesis, the question deserves a further study, if the country is to abandon an outdated model of nation-building and adopt the more modern model of plurilingualism espoused by several countries in Europe.

Section 7 of Article XIV decrees that Filipino and, until otherwise provided by law, English, are the official languages of the Philippines. It also decrees the regional languages as

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auxiliary official languages in the regions in which they are used. Section 6 exhorts the government to take steps to initiate and sustain the use of Filipino as a medium of official communication, subject to the provisions of the law and as the Congress may deem appropriate.

The wording of these language provisions is confusing and contradictory. Although the regional languages are the official languages in the regions, they are also described as auxiliary. How can something be official and auxiliary at the same time? Moreover, although the Filipino language is established as an official language, the government is exhorted to take steps to initiate and sustain its use as a medium of official communication. Finally, what is meant by the phrase “until otherwise provided by law” in Section 7?

One must read the language provisions together with the other constitutional provisions to shed light on the confusion and contradiction. Section 1 of Article XIII (Social Justice) mandates the Congress to give the highest priority to the enactment of measures that will remove cultural inequities, among others. If social justice means the removal of cultural inequities, is there a better way of attaining this goal other than by giving non-Tagalog languages a higher role than merely being the vehicle of familiar and vulgar communication?

Without delving into the (de)merits of the national language policy and the true nature of Filipino, I ask: What should the relationship among the country’s languages be?

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With the social justice provision in mind, a friend interpreted the language provisions as conferring upon regional languages official status in the regions in which they are spoken. They are auxiliary in the sense that they do not have official status nationwide. I agree with him. In fact, I would even go further and interpret the language provisions as empowering the Congress to provide for the official use of one or more regional languages nationwide.

Again, the government is to initiate and sustain the use of Filipino as a medium of official communication. The language provision uses the indefinite article. The government’s undertaking is also subject to the provisions of law and what the Congress may deem appropriate. The Congress may one day deem it appropriate to provide for the use of one or more regional languages as a medium of official communication. Some may argue that the Constitution describes regional languages as only auxiliary. But following such logic, it seems that the Congress may provide for the use of another foreign language as a medium of official communication if it deems it appropriate. It would be queer and absurd if it can do that for a foreign language but not for a native Filipino language; and the law, the Constitution especially, must be presumed not to have intended such an absurdity.

The above interpretation is the most appropriate and the most consistent with social justice and the spirit of nation-building in a multicultural and multilingual context. It needs to be supported by further studies, but justice for non-Tagalog Filipino languages must be borne in mind whenever the law is interpreted. All Filipino languages are a part of our patrimony. They are equally valid means of expressing nationalism and patriotism and, as such, must no longer be seen as threats to national unity.


Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Samantha King

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While generational experiences are fluid, most Malcolm Hall memories are not. No one leaves its corridors without having been affected in some way, including the people largely responsible for such impressions — the professors.

Looming larger than life every time they enter the classroom, shuffle the cards, and call the rolls, these men and women are the picture of imperturbability. This façade is enduring, with professors feared before they are appreciated. And yet, as these essays will show, one can be an outstanding educator and at the same time remain a sensitive human being.

These scattered glimpses of their lives 10 to 15 years ago are a testament to the continuing story of Malcolm Hall.

Indeed, the higher the structure, the deeper the foundation.

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The Constitutional ProphetAtty. Bryan Dennis G. Tiojanco

“Grave abuse of discretion,” Justice Vicente V. Mendoza said, explaining a key phrase of the Constitution, “is behavior that is capricious, whimsical, and arbitrary.” Then, as if unaware of his audience, he added, “like a woman’s.” The class, a miniature of the College of Law’s current predominantly female population, reacted with a muted jeer. Justice V.V., unsurprised by the response, smiled. “It seems that U.P. is not what it used to be,” he said.

His knowing, self-deprecating humor may mislead some to think that the times have left Justice V.V. behind. Now in his eighties, Justice V.V. remains a strong advocate of the judicial philosophy he espoused for 22 years as a Justice of the Court of Appeals (1980-1993) and the Supreme Court (1994-2003), and even way back since 1970 as a professorial lecturer. His concern is that, being an unelected branch of the government, the judiciary should speak on public issues only when presented with an actual case or controversy. It should seldom intervene on the ground of grave abuse of discretion.

Justice V.V.’s constitutional prudentialism at first seems at odds with his own analysis of Philippine government. Filipino politics has historically featured a dominant chief executive, he wrote in 1977, in one of the most widely read essays in Philippine legal history. Congress proved to be an inadequate counterpoise to the President. The 1987 Constitution’s answer was to strengthen the judiciary by giving the “least dangerous branch” corrective powers over grave abuse of discretion

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by the other branches of government. Justice V.V’s view is that courts should abstain from the unprincipled exercise of this power when no actual case is involved and instead let the people fight their battles out in the political arena. In a republic, the judiciary’s function is not to displace the political process, but to keep it open and operating.

The theoretical justifications for prudentialism were elaborated most fully in the 1960s and 70s by Professor Alexander Bickel of Yale Law School, who described judicial review as a “deviant institution” in an otherwise democratic society. It was in 1970 when he published his influential book, The Supreme Court and the Idea of Progress, close on the heels of his classic The Least Dangerous Branch. Justice V.V. was at Yale at that time for an LL.M. degree, when these ideas were very much in the air. In 1976, he spent the Fall Term at Harvard as a Visiting Scholar, working closely with his friend Paul A. Freund, then generally considered the outstanding authority on American constitutional law and an advocate of judicial self-restraint.

For Justice V.V., standing, ripeness, mootness, and the like were tactical, and not merely technical, doctrines. They trace their proud lineage to the birthplace of judicial review itself: the 1803 U.S. Supreme Court Marbury v. Madison decision. In this case, the U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall resorted to prudentialism to save his court from the certain embarrassment of having its writ ignored by the U.S. President, who had threatened to do just that.

Indeed, the history of the United States is replete with instances of political backlash against a Supreme Court that failed to exercise prudence. The doctrines of standing, ripeness, mootness, etc. were in part evolved to save courts from the embarrassments of executive non-compliance, court packing, jurisdiction stripping, or impeachment. For the past

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years, our Supreme Court has suffered through many similar embarrassments. The President unhesitatingly lambasted court orders. A Philippine Chief Justice was impeached. A Supreme Court order to clean up Manila bay received inconsequential, pro forma compliance. Another order, disqualifying an elected congressperson to sit, was ignored by the House of Representatives. More and more, it seems that the times, far from leaving him behind, are intent in proving Justice Vicente V. Mendoza a true constitutional prophet.

Bryan Dennis Tiojanco is a JSD Candidate at the Yale Law School. He is a professorial lecturer at the University of the Philippines, College of Law. He was Justice Vicente V. Mendoza’s student in Judicial Review.

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No GoodbyesAtty. Joan De Venecia

Any law student who has taken Negotiable Instruments will likely agree with me when I say that it would take an extraordinarily good professor to make one interested in studying the dry, archaic, and mostly obsolete law.

Enter Atty. David Emmanuel B. Puyat whom everyone fondly called “Dave.” Dave, who ranked 4th in the 1995 Bar Exams, was a founder and one of the name partners of Puyat Jacinto & Santos, one of the most successful law firms in the country today. Despite his extremely hectic schedule, however, Dave found the time to teach at the College of Law, giving back to his alma mater by sharing his expertise with his students.

From the moment that Dave entered the Sta. Ana room and introduced himself to my block (B 2005), with his booming voice and warm smile, we knew he was special. And that semester he spent teaching NI to us, we confirmed that he was a great man.

Here was a practicing lawyer with a beautiful family — wife Berna Romulo Puyat and two beautiful children Maia and Vito — to take care of, a law firm to run, and advocacies to promote (one of which is transitioning to cleaner and cheaper energy). Here was a man of varied interests, especially in sports (football, tennis, squash, golf, and basketball). Yet Dave rarely missed class and really devoted all of class time to teaching, pausing only to crack a joke or pop a Ricola candy in his mouth.

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Dave was generous with his time, so much so that he even offered to, and did, tutor some of my classmates who were lagging behind. He was also generous with his praise, never failing to commend a student on a smooth recitation or a high exam score. He knew that the most effective way to reach the students, to inspire them to study and excel, was not to terrorize them into submission, but to teach them well — that is, to truly teach by imparting knowledge while getting them to enjoy class by encouraging laughter and fresh ideas.

Needless to say, we, Dave’s students, always looked forward to his classes, and come Bar exam time, answered all of the NI questions in Commercial Law with smiles on our faces, vividly remembering the crazy mnemonics Dave invented to get us to memorize NI concepts.

Knowing that Dave was so full of life, and lived every second of his life to the fullest, it came as a complete shock to us when we learned of his passing at the young age of 42 due to a heart attack. He collapsed while playing football with his Loyola FC team inside the Ateneo grounds. Efforts to revive him failed. I was studying abroad then, but I remember shedding copious amounts of tears by my lonesome upon learning that he passed away. It has been five years since Dave left us, yet I still think of him from time to time, more so now that I am also teaching at the UP College of Law. I can only hope to follow in his footsteps. Dave Puyat was a beautiful soul, and the world was made infinitely better when he was in it.

Professor Joan De Venecia ranked number one in both her graduating class and the 2005 Bar Exams. At present, she is the Vice President and General Counsel of Philex Mining Corporation and teaches Agency & Partnership.

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Two of a KindAtty. Alfredo Molo III

There are two things I want to share.

The first one I am not particularly proud of. It was during a Labor 2 class one afternoon in the Ambion room. I had yet to realize it at the time, but you don’t get away with talking to your seatmates; professors just let you.

Prof. Patricia Salvador Daway or “Ma’am Pats” is known as a kind soul with boundless patience. That afternoon, my block tested its limits. As a result, she called my and a classmate’s attention and then walked out of the room.

In a few minutes, my classmate and I were standing inside her office in the Office of the College Secretary. We knew our crime and were prepared for the browbeating we deserved. None came. Instead, we saw one of the leading lights of Labor Law shed tears while painstakingly explaining why what we did was wrong. I have never been more ashamed. She did not cry out of anger, but of a frustration born of compassion.

And that is who she is. A true teacher. One who masters her subject not out of pride or desire for fame, but out of an earnest desire to pass on knowledge to succeeding generations.

I spent the rest of the semester assuaging the grief I caused her. She remained kind and approachable. We are now colleagues, but I always utter the words Ma’am Pats with warm gratitude and respect. She sees students with kind eyes and has always been patient in directing the misguided (like me) back to the right path.

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The second thing I want to share is a simple secret: Prof. Concepcion “Chit” Jardeleza never says No.

There are a few people whose open-door policies are as wide as that of Ma’am Chit’s. Be it daily recitation struggles, grades, or exams, she patiently listens. Even students with financial problems have found a counselor in her.

Sometime in the early 2000s, she guided one such student and saved him from dropping out. The student’s funds were falling short because of donor problems. It was mid-semester and college-funding decisions had to wait for the next round of meetings. Wandering Malcolm Hall to look for answers somehow led that student to her office.

He did not expect it, but she welcomed him inside. As he explained to her his worries, he felt better just by knowing that someone in the college was there, listening. She gave that student a piece of advice which solved his financial troubles for the rest of the semester, enabling him to continue on to third year.

I will always remember that day when her door opened for a bewildered and desperate student like me. She has guided and counseled countless other students and continues to do so in her trademark style — warm, welcoming, non-judgmental, and always with patience.

Whenever I find myself in the UP College of Law, I drop by her office to chat. She has taught me so many things as a student, but the lessons I fondly dwell upon are those about how to become a better human being.

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Students are often overwhelmed by the stature of the college and its aura of excellence. But excellence without heart makes an institution hollow. And for me, Malcolm Hall is lucky to have at least two.

Professor Alfredo Molo III is currently the Managing Partner of Mosveldtt Law. He earned his LLM from the Harvard Law School (HLS) as a Fulbright Scholar and is a Trustee of the HLS Alumni Association. He teaches Administrative Law, Agency & Partnership, and Legal Method.

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Conquering FearAtty. Mary Rose Tan

When my batch entered the UP College of Law, Professor Alberto Jesus T. Muyot, Jr., was teaching Criminal Law. Naturally, he had the privilege (or, depending on how one views it, the curse) of initiating law school freshmen who were hopeful, boastful, anxious, or uncertain.

Learning from Prof. Muyot, I finally understood what being taught in the grand manner meant. He came to class punctually, followed his well-researched outline religiously, and illustrated the concepts through practical examples consistently. Above all, he showed passion while initiating us into the legal profession. He ended up teaching Criminal Law 1, Criminal Law 2, and Torts & Damages to my class.

I did not understand at first how much influence his style of teaching would have on my own, foremost of which was the lack of indifference towards students. I came to Malcolm Hall straight out of college and lacked the experience of being in a workplace environment (and was a Psychology major at that). He made me aware of how the law does not exist in a vacuum and how keeping abreast of current affairs is of utmost importance in a lawyer.

I recall his way of beginning the class by sharing his thoughts on how he thinks the peso will devaluate, with corresponding predictions (gesturing with his index fingers toward the ceiling) on the devaluation the following day (which actually happened!). There was another prediction he made, which, to my consternation, also turned out to be true — of how my male classmates would become more

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attractive once they became lawyers and how female lawyers would find it hard to marry.

One thing he spoke about enlightened me as to what it entails to be a lawyer. On the occasion of a classmate faltering during a recitation, he stated in no uncertain terms that a lawyer should always get a hold of his or her fear, for his or her client is more fearful — of losing status, property, life, or liberty. Clients rely entirely on their counsels’ skills. To me, that lesson encapsulates the responsibility attached to the title Attorney.

He joined the UNICEF a few years after teaching my class. He then entered government service as the Undersecretary of the Department of Education.

One day, while I was listening to the AM radio on my way to work, I was jolted by a familiar voice.

It was Usec. Muyot, schooling the radio anchor about the Government’s K-to-12 program. Memories from the time he taught me flooded back — the terror of being called on to recite and then being exposed for not knowing the case inside-out, the curiosity at the myriad of doctrines he explained to us, the wisdom behind a policy or law, and the hope of one day being able to make him proud, not just as a lawyer but also as a human being.

He has since returned to teach at the UP College of Law. Needless to say, I am very proud to be his colleague. I am excited for the students who will have the privilege of being in his classes.

Professor Mary Rose Tan has been a professorial lecturer at the UP College of Law since 2009 and teaches Torts & Damages and Obligations & Contracts. She is also the Associate General Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary of San Miguel Corporation.


Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno:

The Higher Calling

Jose Carlos Marinwith additional reporting by Amapola Española

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In stark contrast to the other branches of government, the judiciary is mostly insulated from politics. The Supreme Court of the Philippines, the highest judicial body, does not publicly assess the state of the nation or possess the privilege to speak on any topic according to its whim.

But the tail end of 2011 until mid-2012 was a period of unprecedented developments in the third branch of government: Chief Justice Renato Corona was impeached — the first time in Philippine history for any high-ranking official in the Philippines — and Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Punzalan Aranal-Sereno was appointed the first female Chief Justice. All of these events unfolded while the public, usually unconcerned with the inner workings of the Supreme Court, watched closely.

Thus, the most immediate task of Chief Justice Sereno was to move past the fanfare that attended her historic appointment and restore public trust and stability to a judiciary rocked by the previous Chief Justice’s impeachment. In spite of the public scrutiny, it seems that she succeeded: The Supreme Court has consistently garnered high public approval ratings over the past three years.

Chief Justice Sereno has led judicial reforms, particularly the modernization of court processes. She discussed with the Register the need for a young lawyer’s idealism in public service, the public duty of the students and alumni of the UP College of Law, and the long road to the post of chief magistrate of the Philippines’ highest court.

Early careerChief Justice Sereno was born in 1960. Her mother was

a public school teacher, while her father was a native of Siasi,

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Sulu. Despite their humble means, she continuously excelled in her studies: She obtained her degree in Economics from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1980. She later earned her Bachelor of Laws, cum laude, from the University of the Philippines, graduating the valedictorian of the Class of 1984 — after having married Mario Jose Sereno while in her fourth year in law school.

She then joined Sycip Salazar Hernandez and Gatmaitan Law Offices as a junior associate. She found out, however, that while being a part of one of the country’s largest law firms was very much in line with her peers’ expectations of her career, it was ill suited to starting a family.

“I needed to stay in the office until 9 p.m.,” she said. “I needed to work Saturdays; holidays would be very much shortened, if ever available — and that was really no way to live a harmonious life with my husband, who strongly believed that family should come first.”

Thus, in 1986, she decided to leave the firm and “life in the fast lane towards material wealth” to spend time with her husband and raise their first child. She returned to the UP College of Law as a professor, going on to teach for the next 20 years. During that time, she also headed two offices in the UP Law Center: the Information and Publication Division and the Institute of International Legal Studies.

Her career has since spanned various positions. She served as a legal counselor at the Appellate Body Secretariat of the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland; the chairperson of the Steering Committee of the Preparatory Commission on Constitutional Reform; the executive director of the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center; and a lecturer on International Trade Law at the Hague Academy of International Law.

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She was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2010 and became Chief Justice in 2012.

“I don’t think you can talk about where I am now as the result of planning,” she admitted. “But it was the consistent practice of certain important principles: to stand by, to make the right decision based on deep fundamental values that I had already assessed to be correct and are my own that I have embraced. Consistently trying to be excellent in everything I do.”

“Somebody was preparing this for me,” she continued. “I always attribute this to God who crafted this path for me. It was really part of a plan — a large plan that I did not design — that I came to be in this position.”

Hard decisionsChief Justice Sereno’s departure from life in a large law

firm was only the first of many difficult decisions in the course of balancing a legal career with a growing family, especially since the birth of her second child.

During her stint in the UP College of Law faculty, she was given the opportunity to pursue a Master of Laws degree at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, as a scholar. This blessing, however, posed a problem for the mother of two. “My husband said, ‘That money will not allow our entire family to go. We must always be intact as a family. If we cannot go on scholarship, we do not go.’ ”

“I wrote the most audacious letter that any admissions committee has ever received.” she said. “I told them, ‘You have to give me a scholarship — a second one. I’m a married woman, and I have two children and a husband who will join me.’” She convinced them to give her a grant that would

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be enough for her to take her family with her by saying, “You are going to make an important decision for married women. You are basically saying that it is worth it to invest in married women.”

“I told them to believe in me, that I would deliver,” she said. “And I did.”

Having risen above all the difficult choices she had to make, she offered these words to the young and unsure, as she too was once: “If it’s right, it will always be right. Just be patient. Don’t foreclose the possibility that it will turn out right in another form. Don’t shape the outcome in your own particular configuration, to what you have in mind. It might turn out to be a different way. So, stick to your decision because it is right. It will be validated in the end. But you have to really be patient.”

She made a gentle reminder to those who let insecurities get the best of them: “You should never let people make conclusions for you. ‘You’re not successful!’ or ‘You’re not good enough!’ No, you decide that for yourself. You know what’s inside yourself.”

A call to serviceWhile her rise to the office of Chief Justice was not

planned, it was preceded by a lifelong dedication to service. “When I was much younger, I always had this image of a heroine, a journalist crusading against a big evil or a Joan of Arc type. The Greeks would call it a call to glory, but I would call it a call to service.”

Only in the UP College of Law did she realize where she could best render this service. “I did not think that it would be government service in particular. But when I went to the

38



law school, then the opportunity to introduce change into our society through state agencies became very clear. I knew then, at that point, I could be of utmost help in the public service.”

She assured prospective lawyers that there was room for ambition and idealism. The same causes for disillusionment with the legal profession existed in both private and public practice. The difference, however, is that a public servant was charged with the duty to reject unscrupulousness.

She moved past merely enjoining UP Law graduates to serve the Filipino people, emphasizing that it was not something left to their pleasure, but was their obligation. “UP Law graduates should try to consider a career in the judiciary, in the allied arms of the justice sector. They should also try to find good places in government to help and be leaders in those areas.”

“The UP Law graduate already has the benefit of a public that prizes each of them. In other words, you are always going to be given a special place, but you have to show, every day, that you deserve that place in people’s hearts. You have to prove that what you want to do is to serve and not just aggrandize yourself and your limited interests,” she added.

A message to the UP Law communityAs a graduate of UP College of Law herself, and having

taught in the same for 20 years, the Chief Justice easily saw past the esteem and glamour usually associated with Malcolm Hall. It was apparent that she held the College of Law to the same lofty and sobering standard of excellence that she constantly tried to uphold.

She cautioned the UP College of Law against developing a sense of entitlement. “To a certain extent, we are excellent.

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“The UP Law graduate already has the benefit of a public that prizes each of them. In other words, you are always going to be given a special place, but you have to show, every day, that you deserve that place in people’s hearts. You have to prove that what you want to do is to serve and not just aggrandize yourself and your limited interests.”

– Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno

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We’re topping the exams; we’re occupying the most important positions in the country. But has it bred a thinking that we are entitled to this? That somehow, we do not have the duty to bring the excellence that we have to others? To what extent did we impart this spirit of excellence to other law schools? Or were we content with self-propagation? I think those questions must be asked if we are to be meaningful contributors to democracy.”

Even as she recognized the UP College of Law’s past achievements in the Bar exams, she also warned against stigmatizing those who did not make the cut. “I’ve never believed that if you flunk the bar, you are doomed. So I have always advocated the fact that we are wrong as a society to allow those who do not pass the bar to feel dejected.”

“We are wrong to not offer them an alternative career,” she insisted. “They have gone through so much education — that must count for something. Regardless of whether or not they finally make the grade, we have to find a place for them where they can be most productive and where their honor is intact.”

She lent her voice to the call for a better Bar Examination. To the law school students, she offered these words: “It is a competitive world, and you will compare grades because, unfortunately, that’s the only system that is in place. Until we’re able to find a Bar examination that is more meaningful, you have to just live with it for now. But we have to reform the system.”

She reserved her final words for the professors and alumni, calling on them to help keep the sense of integrity and willingness to serve alive in students and young lawyers. “You were idealistic once. Some of you are still idealistic,” she said. “It is our duty to the young people of the College

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of Law to bring that idealism back to the college and to the profession. We must show them that our generation is willing to talk with the young people about the values that are genuine and give meaning to the noble profession we call law. There is so much evil already; we don’t need to lessen their hope that they can still fight for what is right. It is our duty to show them the way forward.”

“It is not good to be cynical.” she said. “It doesn’t help, doesn’t contribute to uplifting any individual or any institution — much less an institution that is as devoted to high and lofty ideas as the UP College of Law. We must never tell our young people that they should stop trying fighting and striving always for what is good. It is time to stop saying that we cannot change. We can change. And the young people must see clearly that resolve to change within us.”

A search begins

anew

From the reestablishment and

relaunch of the Register, we now have

our sights set on expanding our pool

of talent and perspectives.

The Register will continue to feature journalistic writing and photography, opinion pieces, and legal, social, political, and cultural critique. We are committed to incisive, thought-provoking, and well-written commentary on current affairs and other themes relevant to the UP Law community.

Student writers and photographers from the UP College of Law are invited

to apply for the next issue. Please

send the latest copy of your curriculum

vitae to [email protected]

(subject line: “[Application] Writer” or

“[Application] Photographer” with your

name) along with two to three sample

works for writers, and five to eight

sample photos for photographers.

Contributions are also encouraged

from students, faculty, and alumni

alike. Please send works in

the abovementioned vein to

[email protected] (subject line: “[Contribution]” along

with the title of your work). Please

attach a .docx file and include an

abstract of 200 words or less in the

body of the email.

philippine law register - march 2016 - vol. 1 no. 1

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