Lawyers’ group protest Marcos burial at bar exams

Members of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) demonstrate along Espana Boulevard, across the University of Santo Tomas, to protest the Supreme Court’s decision allowing the burial of late-dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) and rights advocates on Sunday took their protest against the looming burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani to the bar examinations venue.

Clad in black, the protesters demonstrated outside the University of Santo Tomas on España, Manila, as they called on bar examinees to “serve justice, take notice of the judgment of history, and side with the oppressed” in spite of the Supreme Court ruling allowing Marcos’ interment at the heroes’ cemetery.

READ: SC OKs Marcos burial at Libingan | Marcos to be buried at Libingan within the year–Palace

“Yes, dear bar candidate, there can still be justice. In spite of the Supreme Court decision, the lawyers who (like Marcos the Dictator) legalize cronyism, corruption, human rights abuses, tyranny, oppression and exploitation by using or abusing the law, the seemingly partisan and abstract court decisions, the twisted laws during the martial law era and beyond, yes, there can still be justice,” NUPL wrote in an open letter.

“We wear black today while you take your Bar to mourn and protest the way justice has been diminished again with no compunction. But we also wear black to signify that we will not forget this dark night in our legal history,” it added.

Alluding to the high tribunal’s ruling, the NUPL said the law “has its contradictions and dark side, too” as it urged bar takers to be good lawyers that people need “precisely now, when the law is being downtrodden and diminished by skewed reinterpretation.”

“Our rage is as dark as the night; our memory just as long. We will continue to rage as we mourn. But we will help change things. Who knows, we might, with the power of the people scorned, even be able to put sense in the heads of the gods and show their way clear,” the group said.

“And block this ignominy. And tell those who spite the law or frustrate justice that they have no place of honor nor are worthy of respect, much less blind obedience. And tell them that despite all the disappointments, we will still give it a crack,” it added.

Voting 9-5 with one abstention, the SC last week junked all petitions against President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to bury Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani despite strong opposition from martial law victims, rights advocates, and the general public.

The protesters were led by NUPL chair Atty. Neri Colmenares, one of the petitioners who asked the high court to stop the President’s order.

November 13 was the second Sunday of the month-long bar examinations. There are about 6,000 examinees this year. CBB/rga

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