Chel Diokno to push for legislation on free legal aid in barangays

Lawyer Jose Manuel "Chel" Diokno said Wednesday that he will push for free legal aid in every barangay across the country if given the chance to serve in the Senate.

Diokno said that when he opened a free legal desk amid the COVID-19 pandemic, his team of five people received as many as 20,000 queries that did not even require a lawyer to be resolved.

"I realized ordinary Filipinos don't have access to answers to the questions they have. Most of the questions didn't really require the services of a lawyer. We got inquiries about how to correct birth certificates, quarantine rules and violations, labor, OFWs, inheritance and succession," Diokno said in a CNN Philippines interview.

"[Kaya] dapat ho may libreng serbisyong legal sa bawat barrio. I want to push that to reality [if I am elected to the Senate]," he added.

(That is why there should be free legal aid in every barrio. I want to push that to reality [if I am elected to the Senate].)

Diokno said that law degree graduates, before taking the Bar exam, should be deployed to give pointers and seminars to barangay officials who are at the forefront of resolving issues in the community.

"We should maximize our law graduates to educate people... With only five law graduates, we were able to answer more than 20,000 questions from our free legal desk. This is doable," he said.

"[Sa ngayon], parang abogado lang ang nakakaintindi ng batas samantalang dapat naiintindihan ito ng lahat. Laws, decisions should be written in simple English," Diokno added.

(As of now, it is as if only lawyers understand the law when the law should be understood by all. Laws, decisions should be written in simple English.)

Diokno also ran for the Senate in the 2019 polls but lost.

On his second try, Diokno said that he was optimistic that his chances had improved.

"In 2019, with one month before the elections, my awareness [level was] just at 50%. Now, it is around 70%, nearing 80%, so it is better," Diokno said.

"We are really working hard on awareness because when it comes to conversion [to votes], we are strong in that," he added. — VBL, GMA News