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New lawyers urged to serve the people in ‘uncertain, daunting’ legal landscape


The National Union of Peoples' Lawyers on Wednesday encouraged the country's newest lawyers to serve the people amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the "breakdown of the rule of justice" they said is seen in the alleged increase of human rights violations.

"Yes, lawyering is not just a profession. It is a calling," the NUPL said in a statement. 

"As lawyers, you are now tasked with the great responsibility and obligation not only to serve your clients in court but to serve the people at a time when injustice is as dangerous and as virulent as any known deadly disease," it said.

NUPL president Edre Olalia said the legal landscape is "uncertain, confusing and daunting," and that the law and legal concepts are "being reinvented, reformatted and distorted to suit and broaden further governmental power."

"Lawyers must serve justice and complain incessantly against everything that is wrong in our society. In the right way, for the right reasons, in the right place, at the right time," he said.

A total of 2,103 candidates passed the 2019 Bar examinations, representing 27.36% of the 7,685 examinees who completed the licensure test last November. Mae Diane Azores of the University of Santo Tomas Legazpi was the topnotcher with a rating of 91.0490%.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, for his part, said lawyers should be equipped to work in a landscape shaped and driven by technology.

In a statement, he said the legal framework has "morphed" as a consequence to the performance of many human interactions, including crimes, through cyberspace.

"Laws governing electronic transactions and penalizing offenses committed thru cyberspace have been enacted, and the way our legal institutions operate has been modified to cope up with and make use of computer-driven technologies," the Justice chief said.

"All new lawyers should be equipped to tread on this new landscape, where the environment for many human activities has become a virtual reality," he added. —LDF, GMA News

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