Lawyers’ group confers Outstanding Public Servant award on Belmonte

MANILA, Philippines - Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. was conferred the Outstanding Public Servant award during a recent convention of government lawyers.

Belmonte, for his part, called on public attorneys to help strengthen the rule of law.

“The daily work and service of every public attorney is noble and significant. You provide a face to people who need legal assistance and protection but cannot afford it,” Belmonte said in his speech before the 5th Mandatory Continuing Legal Education of Accredited National Convention of Public Attorneys at the Manila Hotel on Thursday.

Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) chief Persida Acosta led the convention of government lawyers.

Belmonte said the public attorneys’ task was “strong evidence that government continues to work actively for the welfare of all.”

Acknowledging the PAO as a key institution in the quest for inclusive growth and good governance, Belmonte said inclusive growth is not just a matter of economics.

“The rule of law, truth and social justice are equally important to the attainment of meaningful growth,” he said. “Good governance remains the key to sustainable development.”

After being conferred the award, Belmonte said: “I am truly humbled. All I have done in my career as a public servant is to give my best in my work. And for certain, there are so many selfless and talented individuals who have helped me in achieving whatever good has been attributed to me.”

The Speaker of the House of Representatives took the occasion to emphasize that the continuing institutional reform in the judiciary is particularly important.

“There is a growing body of evidence and literature that attests to linkages between the quality of performance and effectiveness of a judiciary and a country’s economic growth,” he said.

Belmonte cited a World Bank assessment that one of the critical lessons of the East Asian financial crisis and the collapse of some Eastern European transition economies in the 1990s was that “without the rule of law, economic growth and poverty reduction can neither be sustained nor equitable.”

The Speaker also mentioned Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno’s strong case for reform in the judiciary in her 2007 paper “Justice and the Cost of Doing Business,” where she found “how well the Philippine judicial system functioned had significant implications to the growth of the economy and to the entry of foreign investments.”

In the paper, Sereno said governance problems were at least as important as economic or financial problems in doing business.

“An inefficient functioning of the judiciary therefore is linked to decisions by businessmen not to invest,” Belmonte said.

Belmonte, however, was quick to relay the good news that “reforms are continually being made to make the wheels of justice move more swiftly in our country,” adding that “the adoption of an automated case management system is but one of the innovations and reforms being implemented towards this purpose.”

While recalling the 15th Congress vigorously supported judicial reforms by creating additional regional trial courts, metropolitan trial court branches and separate municipal circuit trial courts, Belmonte gave assurance that judicial reform remains a priority in the current 16th Congress.