Lawyer: SC should extend MCLE to April 2023

Lawyers also have compliance requirements amid the pandemic.

I have been a lawyer since I passed the Bar in 1981. That was four decades ago, and I have complied with the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in spite of my senior age.

In this day and age, do we still need lawyers? Or are there too many lawyers in the Philippines? One blogger commented: “Lawyers will always be prominently necessary in the Philippines, where laws are convoluted, and people like to argue their way (magpalusot) out of trouble.” A quick Google search reveals that there are around 40,000 lawyers currently on the rolls of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines as of 2016, while the population of the Philippines is 108.1 million as of 2019. So, yes, we probably need more lawyers—even elderly (those 59 and below) and senior citizen lawyers. I have observed that more senior citizens attend seminars.

I have reached MCLE VI (MCLE VI–No. 0030746), which will expire on April 14, 2022. As much as I would like to continue my MCLE, we all know that restrictions arising from the pandemic prevent senior citizens such as myself (I am already 77) from going out. I have not seen any available MCLE seminars.

In this regard, I am inclined to request the MCLE office of the Supreme Court to kindly extend the compliance period of the MCLE to at least a year from the current deadline of April 14, 2022, to April 14, 2023.

Since lawyers must likewise comply with requirements even in these pandemic-affected times, hopefully the Supreme Court can make life easier for elderly and senior citizen lawyers.

GODOFREDO V. ARQUIZA
National President and Chairman
Coalition of Associations of Senior Citizens/Elderly in the Philippines, Inc.