Tribute to lawyers

BACK in the laidback province, during my grade school and high school years when I still sipped the nectar of innocence and a carefree lifestyle, I started working for my father in his law office.

I was not hired. I just went in there and started working. There was no contract, no official time, no set of rules I had to follow. But I think my father was happy with my presence.

I started out as a janitor and errand boy. When I learned how to type, I became a clerk-typist. Later I graduated into some kind of confidential secretary preparing some of my father's legal briefs and memoranda.

Because of this I, became quite familiar with many legal terms and processes and my knowledge of the legal luminaries in the country became almost as rich as that of the movie stars, back then led by Romeo Vasquez, Amalia Fuentes, Susan Roces, et al. It was a different world.

Located at home, ours was not really a big-time law office like those of the big cities. But it was enough for me to feel important and useful, as I felt I was becoming part of the world of the big guys.

It was always milling with people. Coming from the mountains, many of them also used our house to sleep in. That way the house came to look important in our neighborhood. In no time, I also became a kingpin among my peers.

It was obvious that the clients held my father in very high regard. That made me feel very good, especially when they said I was as good as my father. No, I did not allow this flattery to intoxicate me, but I kept it in mind for constant verification. That was the secret game I played.

These clients, mostly simple folk, soon became my friends, a source of learning, a lot of amusement, and other privileges like the pigs I asked them to give me, and chickens that I tried to convert into fighting cocks, and others.

I think I could be considered a successful hog-raiser, since I always had at least five pigs in my pen at any given time, and I would earn some money from them.

During fiestas, my mother would just give me a certain look and I would immediately understand I had to part with one or two of my pigs. That made everyone happy, I think. So was I, and doubly so.

A rich client, the owner of the movie houses, allowed me to go to the movies for free, with no limit. So, even if we did not have TV then -- not to mention computers and the Internet -- I was not too ignorant of the world outside the mountain and the sea that were the fixtures of my childhood.

Movies at the time were clean and wholesome. They provided me with really good entertainment. I stopped going only when they became foul and rotten, with themes that were downright immoral. The world was changing.

Other clients gave me free snacks and meals in their eateries and stores. So things were not really that bad. I think was quite blessed.

Of course my work in the office had its difficult and trying moments. While I was amused at the ways of simple clients who got tense, nervous, and funny during the rehearsals a day before their trials, I started to ask some serious questions about law, and about its morality.

My father patiently explained the intricacies of the profession to me, and promptly removed the sources of scandal that I could have suffered from what I saw and heard.

He asked me to be patient, to listen, think, reflect, and talk less. He asked me to refrain from judging the cases simply on the basis of appearance and hearsay. He reassured me that what he did was good, though he did not have to tell me this. He told me to have an open mind.

He showed me the distinction between what it is to be emotional and what it is to be rational. I remember considering this knowledge as a landmark in my growing up. I felt I had just been given a very precious secret.

Still, I became more and more inquisitive, and soon I realized that for true justice to be rendered to all, not just to some people, some objective basis for what is right and wrong should be clearly established.

This was because I soon realized that the legal system is not the same as moral law. The former is man-made; the latter God-given. I know that they should try their best to be in harmony, but they, in fact, can be worlds apart and in conflict.

I raised some points to illustrate that. And I pointed out to my father some lawyers whose actuations I suspected to be deliberately using the legal system to play around with the moral law.

I remembered telling him once in youthful pique that some lawyers didn't seem to be interested in the truth. They were interested only in defending their clients at all costs, earning money in the process. Crooks!

Discussions like these occupied those times when we could just be alone together. My father cautioned me always to be open-minded, and learn to cope with the limitations and imperfections of this world.

I noticed I started to lose part of my innocence. But it is not true that I became a priest because I did not want to be a lawyer. There were other things that intervened. But that's another story.

I am aware that being a lawyer is a difficult and delicate profession. And I pray hard that lawyers themselves realize they not only need to have a good grounding in the law, but also should live lives consistent with moral law.

Otherwise, the lawyers' indispensable service to society may be wide open to abuse -- and we will all be in trouble!