Lawyers

During the conferment of the St. Thomas More Award, one of the awardees, Atty. Henrietta Vinco quipped that the award and St. Thomas More show that lawyers can also go to heaven. She works on the popular joke that lawyers cannot be trusted.

There is a joke that fire and storms can leave you something to salvage, but against a lawyer, you can lose everything including your wife.

The fact is that most of the jokes come from lawyers whose sense of humor is as good as their excellence in law.

Seriously, there are many lawyers who not only go to heaven but became saints. They might not be called lawyers as we do in the Philippines but they were men and women of law. In some countries, lawyers are called counselors or solicitors but one main difference is that they do not, as a matter of practice, place the abbreviation “Atty.” before their names.

The St. Thomas More Award is not new. The first recipient was lawyer Francisco “Frankie” Cruz for his pro bono work in the defense of human rights especially of the poor who were referred to him by the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Bacolod. The award is a small token, but no matter how small the Diocese recognizes the goodness of a lawyer.

The four new awardees are recognized along the same line – lawyers who freely give their time and talent for the social justice work and other legal needs of the Diocese.

During the testimonial dinner at the St. John Marie Vianney, Bacolod Bishop Vicente M. Navarra said that there are people with misgivings about the choice but these lawyers were not chosen for their personal life, or their incomes and other activities but for what they did and do for the Diocese and its social action apostolate.

This is not a beatification or a canonization but recognition of a lawyer's generosity in giving his or her professional service not for profit or gain but a Christian's response to the needs of others. Since the need is legal, who can extend that except a lawyer?

We know that every award always create resentment in others who think they ought to receive it as well, or somebody should also be given.

That is a matter of perception of one's self worth or perhaps envy that arises out of pride. Envy clouds our minds in knowing that others can do something good for others less endowed.

The two, Attorneys Michelle Abella and Vinco had been helping the Diocesan Social Action Center which caters to the poor, the marginalized, like victims of labor exploitation or land grabbing.

The two posthumous awards, for Justice Juan Hagad and Judge Henry Arles are well-deserved. I need not write what these are because they are well-known, especially now about Judge Arles who was brutally killed for reasons that the National Bureau of Investigation is still working on.

I hope, though, that the controversy surrounding the murder and the case filed by the NBI will soon be made clearer and the case goes court.

I am certain that the NBI has a strong case because it would not have taken a such great risk with a lousy investigation.

The awards should spur us to rethink our popular belief about lawyers as people who use their skill in law to suck out their livelihood from others with problems. As one television commentator said, the greater the problem and the richer the client, the bigger the legal fee.

My experience with lawyers and judges shows that there are bad lawyers and bad judges as there are bad policemen and good policemen; or bad this and good that in every profession. I have many lawyer friends who live exemplary lives and are model citizens.

It is not therefore right to label them as if they are the worst professionals.

These awards recognize only four but Bishop Navarra says this is just a beginning. Who will be cited next and what are the criteria for selection?

The award was given for the first time in 2005 which means that it is not annual but only when the need arises.

St. Thomas More was made to choose – obey the King or lose your head. He chose to obey God.

In his famous last words before the axe man cut his head off, St. Thomas More said, “I am the king's loyal servant, but God's first.” He chose death in obedience to a Higher Law, the Lawgiver. Lawyers today are likewise challenged in defense of a higher law.

If we consider that St. Thomas More was the Chancellor of England, the highest position in the realm, to choose death rather than obey an order against the Higher Law was indeed the height of martyrdom.*

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