Welcome to our ranks! This is both a culmination and crossroads for you. You have a choice to define yourself. You can be part of the forces that frustrate, undermine or delay justice even if they mouth elegant rhetoric and pay lip service to lofty ideals. Or you can just coast along, comforted by your individual priorities and be left to your own devices. Or you can be relevant by choosing to journey off the beaten path by serving the poor, the powerless and the persecuted.
Prove to be models of principles and have a passion for justice. Or you can regale the country by being embarrassments to the profession, with all the perks of power. Being a lawyer is not a goal in itself, it can be a means to a higher purpose—to make things right by doing things right. We hope you will make sense of this privilege and find meaning amid all the euphoria and expectations.
Congratulations! Sana magkita tayo sa korte, sa kongreso at lalo na sa kalsada! But for now, a heartfelt kudos, pañeros and pañeras!
EDRE U. OLALIA,
president, National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers,
nupl.pid@gmail.com