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Some pictures of our recent foray into the great white beaches of Puerto Galera:
The Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR) warmly congratulates the 1,659 new lawyers in the country today. We look forward to a new generation of lawyers who will place public interest above personal and elite interests. We fondly remember the late Atty. Fedilito Dacut of Eastern Visayas as one of those who served his clients from among the peasants who seek genuine land reform, the urban poor of Tacloban fighting demolition and other oppressed sectors. We were saddened and outraged when Atty. Dacut, who also figured as a Bayan Muna leader in the region, was brutally killed last March 14 by those who considered Bayan Muna members and human rights lawyers as enemies of the state. A very serious attempt on the life of Justice Romeo Capulong, founder of the Public Interest Law Center (PILC) was also plotted last March 7 in the midst of his active service as one of the legal advisers of the striking Hacienda Luisita workers.
For Atty. Dacut and other martyrs, the passion to uphold human life and dignity, just as Justice Capulong and other activist lawyers took the side of landless and extremely underpaid Hacienda Luisita workers against the abusive Cojuangcos, guided their work for social justice even at the risk of their very own lives. May their examples guide you as you also choose to serve the poor and exploited and live up to the worth of being admired as people’s lawyers and “iskolar ng bayan” (scholars of the people.)
In the present situation of escalating repression and human rights violations, we certainly need more lawyers who will actively defend, uphold and promote the socio-economic, civil and political rights of the people. We appeal especially for all graduates of the University of the Philippines (UP) and other state universities, that the will to serve the poor workers, farmers, urban poor, migrant workers and all the marginalized sectors who usually cannot afford expensive lawyers’ fees, guide your profession rather than to serve the country’s big business and landlord elite.
Some of you may be invited to join the legislative staff of the Philippine Congress, Senate, Malacañang and the corporate world. In the face of so many laws that contradict national interests, may your wisdom guide you to support the people’s campaign for the review and repeal of the Oil Deregulation Law behind the series of oil price hikes; the Mining Act of 1995 which allows unhampered exploitation of Philippine patrimony by multinational corporations; the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) that allows renewed US military intervention, the repressive no permit, no rally policy; among others. Lawyers who stand in solidarity with people's struggle for genuine democracy, peace and social justice will certainly play significant roles in the movement for meaningful change.
Rev. Fr. Allan Jose Arcebuche, OFM
Chairperson, Promotion of Church People’s Response
NCCP Compound 879 EDSA Quezon City, Contact: 4107623
(for Ilang with all braveness and sincerity)
From here to the red rays of the sun,
I clench my fist--like thunder drawing
itself to your bosom;
to picture my unselfish memory
of you making love with the masses.
From here to the line of fire,
I raise my arms--like clouds holding
the rains beneath your eyes;
to free the class of the deprived.
From here to the roses of battles,
I open myself--like bullets fired
across the fields against the enemies;
to win your heart and the people’s.
-April 19, 2001
