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Peoples' lawyers.
(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Byline: Carlos Isagani T. Zarate
AS a young and new lawyer in 1958, Fred Gapuz of Cagayan de Oro City was thrust into the whirlpool of the protest movement against the Parity Rights and the presence of US Military Bases in the country. A fresh graduate of the University of Santo Tomas then, he linked arms with noted nationalists, among them Claro M. Recto.
"It was almost half a century ago," he noted with a tinge of nostalgia. Yet, at 71, Gapuz is still fired up by the same "idealism" he embraced decades ago. Last July 23 in Davao City, he was elected chair of the newly organized Union of Peoples' Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM), which was formed by an assembly of almost a hundred lawyers, paralegals and law students from the different regions of the island.
Why is he still in the thick of "human rights" lawyering after all these years? "It's my conviction; it's a continuation of what I started since nothing substantial has changed even up to now," he said. A veteran of the parliament of the streets, Gapuz, in 1984, was a founding member of the Concerned Lawyers' Union of Mindanao for Nationalism (Column).
UPLM members "commit ourselves to the cause and principles of peoples' lawyering," the group declared in its founding statement, which was read by Gapuz during a press conference last week.
"We make this commitment to the poor and dispossessed (of) Mindanao. They not only have the least in law but [they also] are perpetual victims of the law itself in our unjustly stratified social system where the interests of the privileged few dominate law and society. Thus, in essence, the peoples' lawyer is not only a legal advocate or defender but also an agent of change in society, [with a mission] to uplift the poor and the powerless. As peoples' lawyers, we believe that our interests and our issues cannot be dichotomized from the overall conditions of our people and the nation. Our (profession) carries with it the responsibility to serve and pursue the ends of justice," the UPLM statement also declared.
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