NUPL to Bar exam passers: The country needs you, stand in frontlines vs injustice
MANILA, Philippines — Amid incidents of human rights abuse during ongoing coronavirus crisis, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) is calling on those who passed the 2019 Bar examinations to “stand in the frontlines” against injustice.
In its congratulatory message to 2019 Bar examination passers, the NUPL said there are two pandemics being faced by the public today—the coronavirus disease threatening public health, and the “apparent breakdown of the rule of justice characterized by the increasing number of human rights violations perpetrated with rabid impunity.”
“We hear the stories every day: the hungry are arrested, detained, and slapped with criminal charges for demanding food on their table. Hundreds of people – including minors and the elderly – being arbitrarily detained for leaving their houses to buy or search for food. Law enforcement officers mauling and shooting people for alleged violations of quarantine protocols,” NUPL said.
“Those who dare challenge and speak up against all these injustices have become targets themselves,” it added.
The NUPL issued the statement after the Supreme Court released the list of the 2,103 passers of the 2019 bar examinations.
With 7,685 examinees, the passing rate was at 27.36 percent.
“You have hurdled one of the hardest professional licensure exams in the country in the midst of an extraordinary time in the history of humankind and society. It is time to put your calling to the fore,” NUPL said.
“Yes, lawyering is not just a profession. It is a calling. As lawyers, you are now tasked with the great responsibility and obligation not only to serve your clients in court but to serve the people at a time when injustice is as dangerous and as virulent as any known deadly disease,” it added.
NUPL further told the new lawyers: “The country needs you.”
“Where there is injustice, there is a growing clamor for change. Together with the Filipino people, we must stand in the frontlines against this injustice,” NUPL said.
“There is no better time than now,” it added.
Mae Diane M. Azores from the University of Santo Tomas-Legaspi topped the Bar examinations after garnering a rating of 91.0490 percent.
Bar examinees tackled a total of eight subjects over four consecutive Sundays in November: Political Law and Labor Law, Civil Law and Taxation, Mercantile Law and Criminal Law, Remedial Law and Legal Ethics and Practical Exercises.
