ACCRA hits gold

The giant ACCRA (spelled with all caps to differentiate it from the capital of Ghana) Law Office celebrated its 50th anniversary with a series of events culminating in an “Appreciation Dinner” a few days ago at the Shangri-La Grand Ballroom in Taguig City. I was invited as the keynote speaker. Here is an edited and shortened version of my speech.

I AM GRATIFIED AND INSPIRED BY YOUR ANNIVERSARY THEME to strive and thrive “Beyond Legal Excellence” by serving the poor and marginalized through your CSR department in collaboration with selected non-governmental organizations. Like you, I believe in helping the poor help themselves through private entrepreneurship. As the Chinese sage Confucius once said, “Give a man a fish, and you save him for a day, but teach him how to fish and you save him for a lifetime.”

To help me achieve this mission, I organized the Foundation for Liberty and Prosperity (FLP) because I had no CSR department to assist me. The FLP, in partnership with other foundations and corporations I am a director or adviser of, grants 20 yearly law scholarships at P200,000 each to senior and junior law students and five yearly fellowships at P450,000 each to graduate students taking masters’ degrees in entrepreneurship, science, management, economics or business law. Our ultimate projects, in partnership with the Supreme Court, are the establishment of an immersive, interactive, and AI-powered Museum for Liberty, and Prosperity and of a multi-billion-peso “Prosperity Fund” to invest in, and help manage, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises or MSMEs. I invite ACCRA to join us in these two projects.

ONE OF THE DEEPEST REGRETS OF MY HUMBLE LIFE was my inability to honor the invitation of ACCRA’s first managing partner (MP), the late Edgardo “Edong” Angara—as he was nicknamed before he got known as “SEJA”—to join ACCRA at its inception because I had many commitments I could not ignore. I already had an ongoing law office, some family businesses, and was a director of a commercial bank, an insurance company, and a mining corporation, which all became clients of ACCRA.

However, when Edong, together with some of the brightest lights of the legal profession here and elsewhere, founded and headed the Asean Law Association (ALA) in the early 1980s, I could no longer decline his kind invitation. And since then, I have been active in the ALA. At the persistent urging of Ave Cruz (one of the five founders of ACCRA), I have become, though unworthy, chairman of ALA Philippines and vice president of regional ALA since 2015. I will be succeeded on Jan. 1, 2024, by CJ Alexander G. Gesmundo. After SEJA joined public service, Ave took over in steering ALA, notably as its regional president from 2015 to 2018. He was succeeded by Singaporean Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon who will serve as president until October this year when he would be replaced by the incumbent lady Chief Justice of Malaysia, The Right Honorable Tun Tengku Maimun binti Tuan Mat.

IN SEVERAL MILESTONES IN THE MANY-SPLENDORED CAREER OF EDONG, I had small parts. For example, when he was University of the Philippines president in the early 1980s, I convinced some friends in Japan to donate fire trucks to the UP for which Edong granted me, in appreciation, a miniature replica of the UP Oblation though I did not have the privilege of being a UP alumnus. Another example: When the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption or Gopac held its 5th Global Conference at the Philippine International Convention Center on Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, 2013, he—as the conference chairman—named me secretary general (after I had retired from the Court) though I was never a parliamentarian.

After Trina Prodigalidad, your lovely and talented MP, learned I nearly joined ACCRA during its early days, she exclaimed, “Maybe, it is best you did not join ACCRA. Otherwise, you would have stayed with us and never became chief justice.” Well, this is my response, “If I had joined ACCRA, I would have been the first ACCRA partner to become CJ.” I stress “first” because I believe Trina is more than qualified to join the Supreme Court after her stint as ACCRA’s MP. At 53, she is young enough to be CJ before her retirement from the Court. She will join at least two of your partners who have become top leaders as Senate presidents. I am, of course, referring to SEJA and the great Franklin Drilon (aside from Sonny Angara and Dick Gordon).

Though the five founders and their successors—like Roger Vinluan, Boy Lazatin, Gina Geraldez, Eboy Tan, Tess Herbosa, Emer de Guzman, Regis Puno, Rowena Flores, and Oliver Pantaleon—were and are my friends, they never intruded directly or indirectly in my work in the Supreme Court. I believe they knew that I would be—as I humbly believe I have been—fair and objective to all, without fear or favor.

Congratulations again to ACCRA as it hits gold on its glorious 50th anniversary. With the Lord’s grace and mercy, I hope to be invited to ACCRA’s even more glorious 75th anniversary when it hits diamond in 2048 with Her Honor, retired chief justice Patricia Ann T. Prodigaligad as the guest of honor and speaker. Cheers!

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