INTEGRITY AND THE LAW
By: Euney Marie J. Mata-Perez on May 31, 2018
A few days ago, we saw the premiere of the movie entitled “Honor,” which is about the life of Jose Abad Santos, the fifth chief justice of our Supreme Court, and who briefly acted as President of the Commonwealth and Commander in Chief of the Philippine Armed Forces while President Manuel Quezon went into exile in the US. The movie premiere was sponsored by the Women in Finance Committee of the Financial Executives of the Philippines, Inc. (FINEX).
Chief Justice Abad Santos was a lawyer known for his integrity. Given his intelligence and outstanding academic performance, he was among those sent by the Philippine government to be educated in the US and groomed to be leaders of our country. The movie emphasized his honesty as a government official and his unwavering loyalty to the country. He decided to stay behind and declined President Quezon’s invitation to join him in the US during the tumultuous period of World War II. Despite his being tortured after his capture in Cebu, he refused to “collaborate” with the Japanese and never betrayed the country. This eventually led to his death by execution.
Shortly before his execution, though, he told his son not to cry, because “it is an honor to die for one’s country.”
Oh, how we long and hunger for such kind of true heroes and role models for our time.
The practice of law is a noble profession, a privilege that is supposed to be bestowed only upon individuals who are competent intellectually, academically and morally. Thus, lawyers are at all times called upon to conduct themselves in their professional and private dealings with honesty, integrity and in a manner beyond reproach.
This Friday, June 1, a total of 1,724 new lawyers will take their oath before the Supreme Court en banc. They will swear: (i) to do no falsehood, nor consent to the doing of any in court; (ii) to delay no man for money or malice, and (iii) to conduct themselves as a lawyer according to the best of their knowledge and discretion with all good fidelity to the courts and to their clients. Each of these new lawyers will then sign the Roll of Attorneys, the official registry of lawyers in the Philippines, and be assigned a roll number, the permanent number which we indicate each time we sign pleadings, and which, of course, strongly hints at how old (or young) we are in the practice.
The paths these new lawyers will take will be driven by the choices they make. Several work opportunities in the government or in the private sector await them. However, whether or not they become lawyers with integrity or they succumb to the temptation of corruption, greatly depends on the choices they make. We hope that most of them will take the tougher road of upholding integrity, against all odds.
On our part, we adopted integrity as the foremost of our law firm’s core values—to hold ourselves accountable to the highest professional, moral and ethical standards in the performance of our work. As we celebrate yet another anniversary as a firm on June 4, we continue to uphold said value and endeavor to instill it among our lawyers, especially our newly minted ones (we are very proud of all our new lawyers).
We are mindful that we are also mentors and role models, tasked not just to help our lawyers learn the ropes of lawyering, but also to instill in them the correct values, especially integrity. We do our best to instill in them that one can be an honest lawyer, and still live a decent and even comfortable life. In fact, being honest should be the easier choice, because it gives one peace. Having been in practice for more than two decades, we can personally attest to the fact that one can practice law (including the field of tax) and at the same time be honest and uphold the high ethical standards we are called to adhere to. That is because, ultimately, to be honest is a choice.
We must bear in mind that one day, we will also face our Creator. The circumstances of our “departure” may not be as dramatic as the way Chief Justice Abad Santos experienced, but we will, nonetheless, be made accountable. We hope that when that time comes, He will say, well done, my good and faithful “lawyer.” Thus, achieving such end should be our ultimate goal—for (borrowing the words from the Bible) what good is it if we gain the whole world but lose our souls?
We hope that our new lawyers will not forget their oath and the code of ethics to which they are made to adhere. And for us and our firm, as we celebrate and face another milestone, we also hope and pray that we continue to be faithful, not just to our mission and vision, but more importantly, to the values we espouse. We have made the choice. May God bless us all.
#FINEX #Integrity #nobleprofession #MTF #lawyer’soath
Euney Marie J. Mata-Perez is a CPA-Lawyer and the Managing Partner of Mata-Perez, Tamayo & Francisco (MTF Counsel). She is a corporate, deal and tax lawyer. This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional advice where the facts and circumstances warrant. If you have any question or comment regarding this article, you may email the author at info@mtfcounsel.com or visit MTF website at www.mtfcounsel.com
From the The Manila Times Website May 31, 2018