EDITORIAL - Catalysts for change

The country has 3,962 new lawyers, accounting for 37.84 percent of the 10,490 who took the Bar examinations this year. Top performer Kyle Christian Tutor of the University of the Philippines College of Law worked as a legal secretary and planning officer at the Office of the Solicitor General while pursuing his law degree. The OSG is reportedly hoping to get him as a regular employee.

Even if Tutor prefers private practice, perhaps he and his batchmates in the Bar exams, along with the thousands who became lawyers in recent years, can spearhead efforts to implement long overdue changes in the Philippine legal system.

The country has gained notoriety for its agonizingly slow, inefficient and heavily politicized justice system. Business groups have openly described the Philippine legal system as corrupt and unpredictable, citing it as one of the major disincentives to job-generating investments. Judges and justices, with an eye to promotions or plum assignments, tailor their rulings to please whoever is in power, or allow their work to be influenced by patrons or padrinos. In several cases, the legal system has been weaponized and deployed against enemies of those in power and their cronies.

If justice delayed is justice denied, then injustice is prevalent in this country. It has turned away investments and driven people to join insurgencies. The weakness of the criminal justice system is one of the factors behind the populist appeal of those who espouse extrajudicial, iron-hand approaches to law enforcement. Pursuing punishment for human rights violators is not enough; it must be accompanied by earnest efforts to make the legal system work.

The country’s new lawyers are not yet worrying about their nest egg or their children’s inheritance. They are not yet focused on accumulating wealth, by hook or by crook, for a comfortable retirement. Many of them will still be fired up by idealism, and by the idea that they can change the world. As they enter the legal system, they will see the rot that has made the country notorious for having the best justice that money can buy. Instead of embracing the broken system, perhaps they can serve as catalysts for meaningful change.