BAR examinees on Sunday ignored calls by human-rights groups for them to show indignation against the decision of the Supreme Court (SC) allowing the burial of strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB) by wearing black shirts.
On the second day of this year’s Bar exams, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) and other groups, like Samahan ng Mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (Selda), Karapatan and Karma, staged their “Black to Block” protest action near the University of Santo Tomas, where the Bar examinations are being held.
Earlier, the NUPL issued an open letter to the law graduates taking the examinations and urged them to wear black shirts.
The group said law graduates have a duty to use their knowledge and skills to defend justice in spite of “the Supreme Court decision; the lawyers who [like Marcos the dictator] legalize cronyism, corruption, human-rights abuses, tyranny, oppression and exploitation by using or abusing the law; the seemingly partisan and abstract court decisions; the twisted laws during the martial-law era and beyond.”
“Justice, you see, depends as much on the people, as well as those on who, educated and trained in the law, upholds the law and fights to ensure that it serves the greater good, and not the few powers that be,” the NUPL said in its statement.
“Studying the law, taking the Bar and becoming a lawyer becomes relevant and meaningful only when it serves justice, takes notice of the judgment of history, confirms self-evident truths and sides with the oppressed: in short, when the knowledge and skills learned in law school are used to ensure that justice is achieved,” the group stressed.
However, the more than 6,000 Bar examinees still chose to wear the colors of their schools.
The NUPL said their “black protest” represents not only their grief over the SC ruling but also their commitment to help change the stance of those favoring the burial for Marcos. “We wear black today while you take your Bar to mourn and protest the way justice has been diminished again with no compunction. But we also wear black to signify that we will not forget this dark night in our legal history,” they said.
In its decision last Tuesday, the SC voted 9-5 and upheld the order of President Duterte for the Marcos burial at the LNMB.
It held that it is within his presidential power provided under Article VII, Section 17 of the Constitution.
The ruling, written by Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta, held that Marcos possessed the qualifications to be interred at the LNMB as a “former president and commander in chief, a legislator, a secretary of national defense, a military personnel, a veteran and a Medal of Valor awardee.”
The SC ruled that there is no law prohibiting Marcos’s burial at LNMB.
It also rejected the claim of petitioners that Duterte’s decision was motivated by his debt of gratitude and payback to the Marcoses for supporting his presidential candidacy in the elections in May, saying they failed to establish factual basis for this.
The NUPL has appealed the ruling.
Bar examinees know the Rule of Law. These NUPL idiots are trying-hard wannabes who want to capitalize this situation for attention and publicity. Plain grandstanding when they aren’t even one of the fabricated thousands of thousands of victims kuno.
The Supreme Court had spoken – that’s the RULE OF LAW, not RULE OF THE EMOTING FEW!!
All BAR examinees are the knowledgeable people. NUJP members are the dumb ones. If NUJP and the yellowtards have something against the SC Justices, file it in proper venue – that’s the Rule of Law. and not by media sensationalism