Our legacy
every opportunity, on how I want my children to be. Do I want my children to wear blinders and see the world from only one angle? Do I want them to be quixotic and wage war even against imaginative foes? Or do I want them to basically know how to perceive good from bad, right from wrong, moral from immoral.
It’s not that I make them watch the trial coverage and discuss the issues therein one by one. It’s more about my and Manny’s stand— and in relation to it, how we live our life. To put it succinctly, I would like my children to be conscientious, trustworthy and fair. I wish for them to realize the value of hard work, to cherish simple living versus opulence, to shun the lure of “easy money”. This is why, no matter how hard I try, I fail to understand what the defense team is fighting for. This is also why, no matter how bad their strategies and execution sometimes are, I still hope and pray for the prosecution to succeed in ferreting out the truth.
As a lawyer myself, I abide by the Lawyer’s Oath and the Code of Professional Responsibility. A lawyer shall not do any falsehood, nor consent to the doing of any in Court; nor shall he mislead, or allow the Court to be misled by any artifice ( Rule 10.01). Also, a lawyer shall observe the rules of procedure and shall not misuse them to defeat the ends of justice (Rule 10.03).
Since I went into politics soon after passing the bar and got married a couple of years later, I was only able to practice my profession as a litigator for a few years. I only had one client, a private corporation, which hired me to be its legal counsel. I never had a chance to prosecute or defend in court a cause I did not believe in or persons I did not like. My subsequent job as an executive in a multi- national corporation did not require one to be a lawyer, although being one helped a lot in accomplishing my Key Perfomance Indicators. Hence, I will neither judge nor castigate the members of the defense team and their reasons for accepting the challenge of defending Corona. I implore them, however, to be on the side of the truth and not merely of the law.
Our children are our legacy to the world. Years later, when we too have joined our Creator, we will be remembered, not only of our own success but that of our children’s. No parent would like his or her children to grow up believing that they can get away with “it”. Every parent wants his or her children to be upright, honorable and honest, even when no one is looking.