Philippine democracy is ‘being tested’ by apathy, manipulation – speaker

House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez (File photo)

MANILA, Philippines — House Speaker Martin Romualdez believes Philippine democracy is “being tested by apathy and manipulation.”

For this reason, he is urging lawyers to defend the Constitution.

He made the appeal at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ National Convention of Lawyers in Lahug, Cebu City on Thursday.

“Here at home, democracy is being tested not by force, but by apathy; not by the absence of law, but by its misuse and manipulation,” Romualdez told his fellow counsels.

“This is the reality we must confront: The law is only as strong as those who defend it. It is only as just as those who interpret it. And it is only as relevant as those who wield it for the common good,” he said.

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Romualdez maintained that it is up to the country’s lawyers to have “courage to uphold the Constitution when it is most inconvenient,”

He said the legal profession must serve the underprivileged.

The speaker is a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Law.