SC launches 2022 National Legal Aid Summit

The Supreme Court has convened the 2022 National Legal Aid Summit in line with its constitutional mandate to ensure that legal assistance is provided at all times which kicked off on 27 November at the L’Fisher Hotel in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental.

The summit — “Reimagining the Art of Legal Empowerment: National Summit on Access to Justice through Cultivating Approaches on Legal Aid” — aims to develop a roadmap that will amplify, provide, and sustain avenues of access towards the constitutional guarantee of adequate legal assistance through various plenary discussions, dialogues, keynote addresses, and breakout sessions.

Lawyering does not give us entitlement. Lawyering thrives on truth, not on lies. Lawyering does not exploit a person’s ignorance.

The gathering is in partnership with the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the Philippine Association of Law Schools, Free Legal Assistance Group and Alternative Law Groups.

In his message, Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo emphasized the importance of legal aid in the nobility of the legal profession, saying that the legal profession is a noble one as it is used to secure peace and order in society through the preservation of the rule of law.

“It carries with it a public dimension. As it is involved in the administration of justice, it exists for the society and the public in general,” Gesmundo said. “Indeed, the legal profession is a public service. It is a service to others in need of justice. It is a service to others in search of truth.”

“Lawyering does not give us entitlement. Lawyering thrives on truth, not on lies. Lawyering does not exploit a person’s ignorance. On the contrary, it looks after the disadvantaged and the marginalized, in order to give them a voice, to give them the chance to be equal with others, if not in life, at least in law,” he added.

The Chief Justice also stressed that the legal profession is reserved not only for the brightest and most capable, but more importantly, for the most morally fit and socially committed individuals which is why the Court has shifted its attention to the lawyer’s ethical and social responsibilities in order to highlight what is essential in the practice of this profession.