I continue to receive lawyer-bashing e-mails agreeing with the scathing but not untruthful editorial “Lawyer-dominated society” (Inquirer, 3/23/13). No note has been taken of the following portion in that scathing piece: “…The Marcos dictatorship deglamorized the lawyers by idealizing the technocratic state, elevating an elite of number-crunchers backed by a corps of military bone-crushers. And that is why the heroes of the mainstream anti-Marcos movement were the human rights lawyers of the old FLAG and Mabini. Today, that poetic image of lawyering continues to inspire.”
One student of mine did note and quickly e-mailed me, determined to do human rights lawyering as her lifework.
Last month, when Joker Arroyo (host, as always), Jun Factoran and I lunched with certain women writers we helped at some point during martial law, we three flashed our rosaries. We have lost Ed Araullo, Ed Abaya and Jun Beltran this year. They should be recognized and thanked for what they did while the nation slept.
Frail lawyers we may be, but we, like Cory, try to do our share in working with all our might, praying with all our heart and leaving the rest to God, inspired by Shakespeare’s “first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers!”
Dick the Butcher knew that one taking over should kill the Tañadas, Dioknos, Rodrigos, Padillas, Salongas, Clavers, Arroyos and many others, undaunted in asking the foolish questions of the day.
—RENE A.V. SAGUISAG,
ravslaw@gmail.com