A Note on Lawyers

There has always been a running joke about lawyers and it claims that honest ones are an "endangered species in heaven". The same can be said of honest lawyers here on earth. Yet, despite being "an elusive and endangered species", honest lawyers DO EXIST, as with the case of Atty. Romeo T. Capulong.

I first heard of "Ka Romy", as he was fondly called, during the cases of the Batasan 5 solons (Reps. Casiño, Ocampo, Maza, Mariano, Viray) who were put through difficult times by the Arroyo regime back in 2004. I've always had contempt for bureaucratic geezers with their pretentious formal attires and their elitist leanings, but I think that this man was neither bureaucratic, nor pretentious, nor elitist (despite his elderly and formal appearance). And I admired him as a role model for being so.

In my point of view, he was a simple man who only wanted to serve. He offered legal services pro-bono to his less fortunate clients. Nonetheless, I can tell that he was an excellent man, considering the fact that he became a member of the UN's International Criminal Court, a senior legal adviser to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), a founding chairman of the National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL), and an organizer of the Public Interest Law Center (PILC).

Coming from a family of tenant farmers himself, Atty. Capulong handled cases involving the marginalized sectors with whom he had an affinity for. He stood up for the rights of the “little people” – peasants, workers, urban poor, human rights workers, social justice advocates, political prisoners – who have nothing to defend themselves against the “big bullies” of society. Ka Romy even worked with the PILC’s young law practitioners who share his solidarity with the “little people” by offering their pro-bono legal services to the poor and oppressed. He was most notable for handling the high-profile case of Flor Contemplacion, the Filipina domestic worker who was executed in Singapore. He also handled the cases of the Martial Law victims, “comfort women” of World War II, Hacienda Luisita workers, and the Morong 43 health workers.

His passing away is definitely a great loss to those who uphold social change, true justice and peace, and genuine democracy. Even so, his life of service, integrity and solidarity to the people is already a noble legacy that has set an example of excellence for the current and coming generations of real defenders of the people, changers of society, and champions of social justice.

Even though he is now gone at age 77, his ideals will live on. With this, I raise my fist in a protester’s fashion to salute the great and late attorney. Indeed, honest lawyers are an endangered species on earth, with their population diminished by one. Perhaps Heaven just added Ka Romy to its small quantity of honest lawyers up there.