Supreme Court (SC) Justice Jose Midas Marquez has exhorted the country’s law graduates, many of whom are expected to take the Bar examinations in September to be full-fledged lawyers, “to maintain your indignation at injustice and your anger at corruption.”
“When you see wrong being done, don’t be afraid to speak out. In this world, justice and fairness are never guaranteed. It is our collective actions, our struggle against injustice, which bend the moral arc of the universe towards justice,” Marquez said in his speech during the graduation ceremony on Thursday for law graduates at the Jose Maria College Foundation, Inc. (JMCFI) in Davao City.
Marquez reminded the soon-to-be lawyers and all lawyers in the country: “Keep in mind that lawyers are meant to solve problems for others, not to create them.”
“Lawyers are not often told to be kind, but I believe that when faced with a choice, one should always err on the side of kindness and compassion,” he stressed.
He encouraged the law graduates that “consistently choosing compassion, kindness, and respect for others will set you on the right path: the path towards slowly but surely building a legacy of which you can be proud.”
The SC magistrate then told the graduates that the SC has been in the “period of rapid and extensive change” due to information and communications technology that brings about the operation of hybrid digital courtrooms, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, case management, e-filing, smart buildings, and sustainable energies.
He said that he started to work at the SC as a law clerk “around your age, let me tell you, these were not the kinds of topics the Justices of the Court had to contend with back in those days.”
“We are not just adjudicators of disputes and deciders of doctrine; we are also administrators and reformers working actively to improve the country’s courts and bring the judiciary closer to those in need of its services. Now, more than ever, we are stepping beyond the limited confines of the courtroom and bringing the courts closer to the Filipino people that we serve,” he stressed.
He shared with the law graduates “how effective deployment of technology can strengthen the judiciary and facilitate the delivery of justice as part of a comprehensive set of reforms aimed at improving the entire judiciary from the ground up which is the 2022-2027 Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations, or the SPJI.”
According to him, the five-year SPJI was launched in 2022 by Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo and all SC justices on four guiding principles of timely and fair justice, transparent and accountable justice, equal and inclusive justice, and technology adaptive management.
The SPJI is aimed at achieving efficiency through streamline court systems, innovation through creation of ICT infrastructure for the whole judiciary, and access through inclusivity, transparency, and accountability in court adjudicative and administrative systems and procedures, he said.
“We recognize that the judiciary, no less than the other branches of government, has a duty to evolve with the times and to adopt technological developments to improve its service to the public and performance of its constitutional mandate,” Marquez added.
“To this end, and lest it be said that the Court is falling behind the times, one of the Court’s priority goals is modernization of court processes and operations,” he said.
The magistrate also said: “Modernization will require the use of artificial intelligence for legal research and other court operations. Revision of procedural rules will also be necessary to make court processes more user friendly, more understandable by lay persons, and therefore more transparent.”
Marquez also told the law graduates of the recently approved Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability (CPRA) and the Lawyer’s Oath.
He said the CPRA, among other things, “is consistent with the present direction of the Court towards strengthening a technology-driven judiciary through digitization and automation of court processes and transformation of its human resources.”
The revised Lawyer’s Oath, on the other hand, “obliges all lawyers to conscientiously and courageously work for justice and safeguard the rights and meaningful freedoms of all persons, identities, and communities, and to ensure greater and equitable access to justice,” he said.
“In contrast to the previous Lawyer’s Oath, the new Oath stresses the role of lawyers in the community and responsibility towards others, especially those in need,” he added.
“These timely updates to the lawyers’ code of ethics and our Lawyer’s Oath reflect the Court’s own growing consciousness of the need to bring the courts closer to the people, and its firm commitment to its mandate and mission to deliver justice for all Filipinos,” he stressed.
During the 2022 Bar examinations, JMCFI ranked No. 3 for first-time takers with 51 passers out of 100 examinees, and No. 5 spot for all takers.
A total of 3,992 or 43.47 percent of the 9,183 law graduates who took the 2022 online and regionalized Bar examinations passed the tests.
The 2023 online and regionalized Bar examinations will be conducted by the SC on Sept. 17, 20, and 24.
