Legal fiction or human drama?
The tragic hazing death of first year UST law student Horacio Tomas Castillo III made me ponder and wonder about our current legal system and practice.
A de facto criminal is still presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt and convicted by a court of justice, paradoxically symbolized by a blindfolded Lady Justice, notwithstanding the common belief that devils speak in whispers. In view, thereof, this appears to be only a de facto legal fiction.
Lawyers are trained never to tell a lie for as long as they are not compelled to tell the truth. For the truth may not set their clients free but send them to jail instead. Law students who join an exclusive fraternity or sorority and are initiated to membership by means of sadistic acts of physical violence may in effect be inheriting from their leaders and senior members the seeds of violence, which may form a part of their character.
On a larger scale, the collective habits of a people or a body politic makes up the true character of a nation. Ideologies, ideas, laws and preambles only serve to inspire people, but they do not make a character of a nation. Habits do.
AMAY P. ONG VAÑO, [email protected]
