The role of lawyers in the rule of law
I share in the collective grief of my fellow lawyers as we mourn the of Atty. John Ungab. While I may not have known him personally I knew his mother very well as Dr. Alma Ungab was then the Assistant Chief Nurse when I was still working at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center. However, whether you know the person directly or not, you would still be left shaken with how he was murdered so brazenly in front of his wife. With six innocent children suddenly fatherless after he was killed, you begin to wonder what has become of us as a society. His death was not only an attack against him and his family but in a broader sense a concerted assault against the legal profession. It was meant not only to instill fear among lawyers but to threaten the established universal norms of a democratic society -due process, equal protection, and rule of law.
A lawyer, by his oath, swears to be an instrument of justice. It is his duty to protect the rights and interests of his client within the bounds of law and standards of ethical representation. In the same token, the government must ensure he is able to perform his duties without threats and intimidation. When his safety is at risk in discharging these functions, it is incumbent upon the government to safeguard his security. As a vital partner in the administration of justice, a lawyer's advocacy may be adversarial to the state. He may have to defend an accused murderer, rapist, or drug dealer but in protecting the rights of these accused, the lawyer should not be identified as one with the accused. I am appalled by innuendos that when a lawyer defends a drug lord he is equally as guilty as a drug protector himself as he is obviously being paid out from the proceeds of the business. Suppose a thief robs a bank, gets arrested, retains a lawyer and pays him with part of the loot, does that make the lawyer a bank robber as well?
In a democracy like ours, support of the Constitution is one of the core principles. The interpretation and applicability of its basic provisions are the tasks lawyers are constantly obliged to perform. If we are to maintain peace and order, justice and equality, democracy, and rule of law, we must recognize the lone voice of lawyers in the wilderness of competing interests between the government and the governed. Silencing lawyers through harassment, intimidation, or even murder does not make us a freer and more civilized nation.
As Thomas Paine once said, "For as in absolute government the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king, and there ought to be no other." During these times in the Philippines when respect for human rights seems to be heading down to an unknown abyss, all the more lawyers must advocate and stand up, not only for their clients, but also for the rule of law.