FIRST ONLINE OATHTAKING OF NEW LAWYERS;
WILL THEIR BE A REMOTE SIGNING OF THE ROLL OF ATTORNEYS?
Last Thursday, 25 June 2020, the country witnessed the first ever online Oath Taking of New Lawyers. Two thousand one hundred three (2,103) new lawyers who hurdled the 2019 Bar Examinations appeared before the Supreme Court En Banc through videoconferencing to take the sacred Lawyer’s Oath and finally earn them the right to affix “A-T-T-Y” before their names. However, the Supreme Court made it clear that the unorthodox Oath Taking was a pro hac vice or “for this particular case only” because of the public health crisis brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Traditionally, successful bar candidates flock to the Philippine International Convention Center or PICC in Pasay City for the event.
While swearing before the magistrates of the Supreme Court and reciting the Lawyer’s Oath technically earns a successful bar candidate the title of Attorney, one needs to sign the Roll of Attorneys to be able to dispense the duties and functions of a lawyer. To sign pleadings and submissions before the courts and tribunals, one must indicate his or her assigned roll number. It is like the Student Number or Social Security Identification Number of a lawyer which he or she will use for life. The COVID-19 pandemic makes it difficult for the new lawyers from the provinces to travel to Manila because of the travel restrictions and absence of regular commercial flights. This will delay the chance of our new lawyers to immediately immerse in the practice of law, including the application for notarial commissions.
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the mandatory aggrupation of lawyers in the country, wrote the Supreme Court in a Letter dated 22 June 2020 to allow the new lawyers to remotely sign the Roll of Attorneys. In the Letter signed by IBP President Egon Cayosa, the IBP makes an appeal before the Supreme Court for a “remote signing” of the Roll of Attorneys. In the IBP proposal, the new lawyers will appear before the Executive Judges of the Regional Trial Courts near their residence or the Executive Justices of the Court of Appeal Stations in Cebu City and Cagayan de Oro City. After their signing, the Executive Justices and Executive Judges will transmit the signatures to the Office of the Bar Confidant in Manila and the Bar Confidant will assign the new lawyers their respective roll numbers.
With the tough and difficult times that we are going through, the eminent Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Hon. Marvic Leonen, never failed to remind the new lawyers of the higher and noble purpose of lawyers in the society. The theme of Justice Leonen’s impassioned speech is for lawyers to resist injustice and make it their passion to resist injustice. Let me share you a few lines of his speech:
“When you find that your situation is too difficult as you follow the noble path, remember these words which I also keep repeating, which I first heard from Lean Alejandro, a good friend and activist in the 1980s, it has become one of my favorite lines nowadays – ‘the line of fire is always a place of honor’.
Protect those who have less in life, do not stand for abuse, be accepting of different identifies, speak up against corruption, do not succumb to having more than enough, do not trade kindness for the false badges of success, when you enter public office, discharge it for the public trust that it is.
Do not temper principle with pragmatism, do not hide behind comfortable acquiescence, do not use comfort in lieu of integrity at critical times, do not disguise your complicity. Instead, be at the frontlines. As a lawyer, resist injustice. Make it your passion to resist injustice.”
To our new lawyers, especially the new members of the IBP-Bohol Chapter, my warmest congratulations and welcome to the profession. May you become vanguards of civil liberties and beacon of freedom and justice especially to the poor, marginalized and the oppressed.