Friday, September 5, 2008

"Hell in September"

Law graduates describe the four successive Sundays of September as “hell” trooping to Taft avenue to take the grueling bar examinations. The bar exams is reputedly the hardest exam of the country. It is thru this exam that the mettle of bar candidates from different law schools all over the Philippines is put to a test. As they say, if a law graduate fails to pass the bar… the four or more years of law school is practically put to waste. If a law grad fails to pass the bar on the first try, the stigma of being a “bar flunker” is difficult to shrug off. It said that it is better to pass the bar on the first attempt, even if you merely made the line, than be a topnotcher on the second or more try. No violent reaction please…

Of course, there would be thousand of reasons why an examinee fails to pass the bar exams (or any other exams) at first attempt but what is more important is to keep on trying until you make it. The bar exams, I agree, is not the true and accurate measure of whether one would be a good and successful law practitioner. It is just one set of exams. Don Claro Recto failed to pass the bar at his first try but he is acknowledged to be one of the best, if not the best lawyer, this country has ever produced.

As I was reading the Manila Standard issue of 27 August 2008, Gerry Geronimo’s column entitled “From Ansky, the accidental lawyer” caught my attention. Geronimo yielded his column space to a certain Anna Patricia del Castillo. I suggest that lawyers and those who intend to be one google up and read the column in full. Allow me, however, to share some of del Castillo’s touching and insightful experience on the bar and on being a lawyer. She writes –

“Then I took the Bar. Being a born crammer, I knew I had to be serious and work like crazy all those six months before the Bar. I asked around and the usual schedule was to read at least a hundred pages a day, which meant at least ten hours of reading and listening to review lectures daily. I did all these. But when the Bar results came, my name wasn’t on the list. It was devastating.

…That working oneself to death for six months wasn’t enough. I realize that I wasted eight years of my life. Flunking the Bar made me realize that there was not clear-cut path in my life. My future suddenly became hazy and uncertain, and I started on an uncharted path. I was faced with questions like, should I continue studying and take the Bar again? Or should I just begin a new career path, a whole new life where I would be in charge?

…I studied like mad. The real world faded away, and there was me and my books. Officially, I wasn’t a crammer anymore since I studied most of this stuff the first time around…

…Then I took the Bar again. Since I didn’t pass the first time, my confidence was shady and my composure precarious… After the exams it was difficult to determine whether I would pass or not. The Bar is just like that, so uncertain, because of so many possible answers and only one of them would turn out right. So I waited for six long months. When the results were released, my classmates and friends found out before I did. It was so touching how they seemed to be more ecstatic and excited than I was! If passing for the first time means holding a congratulatory party, passing for the second time means a sigh of relief. It is reclaiming your lost confidence, beginning to trust yourself again, and finally believing that it is meant to happen.

… I also discovered that being a lawyer was my true path despite being just carried along with it. When I found myself, I began to understand the world more, be more caring but responsible and emphatic in my views. I want to help people. And being a lawyer is one of the best paths to do that. I can volunteer in non-governmental organizations that help the poor, the environment, orphans and abused people. I can venture into governmental and pioneer policies that are directed towards helping the people and the earth, or handle cases and make a direct contribution towards the betterment of the life of my client. Being a lawyer creates a sense of power and responsibility that I wouldn’t have had in another career. Now that I’m a lawyer, I thank my parents and those who helped me, and I’m excited to voyage out and begin my life of changing the world.”

Then the column ended with this very sad note – “Anne took her oath as new lawyer in April this year and passed away in June.”

Indeed, we lost a lawyer destined to be the one of the best. The Philippine judicial system lost a lawyer who realized and knows what really lawyering is all about. At this time, most lawyers (I hope not a great majority of them) and this includes judges and justices are in the profession for money’s sake. We hear of stories about “hoodlums in robes”, “justice for sale” and that decisions are only for the rich and the highest bidder.

Justice delayed is justice denied - a well entrenched and oft-repeated phrase in legal circles. Yet, we hear of cases lasting for more than 30 years. We read about convicts languishing in jail, still awaiting trial, for so long that they have already “served out” their sentence in the event of conviction.

I really hope that there are still Anna’s out there who realized that lawyering is really about helping people!