www.soriano-ph.com

On 10 February 2009, the Supreme Court En Banc approved in a Resolution the Rule on Mandatory Legal Aid Service for Practicing Lawyers (Bar Matter 2012).

The rule, which shall take effect on 1 July 2009, shall govern the mandatory requirement for practicing lawyers to render free legal aid services in all cases (whether, civil, criminal or administrative) involving indigent and pauper litigants where the assistance of a lawyer is needed. It shall also govern the duty of other members of the legal profession to support the legal aid program of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.

For details and to view the complete text of Bar Matter 2012, click here.

Sign the petition opposing the proposal of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to add one year to the current four-year college degrees. Read and sign the petition by clicking  HERE.

Sign the petition exhorting Chief Justice Reynato Puno to seriously consider running for President of the Republic of the Philippines in 2010.  Read and sign the petition by clicking  HERE.

You are cordially invited to attend and participate in the regional conference of Creative Commons in Asia and the Pacific in the Philippines on 5-6 February 2009 to be hosted by the Arellano University School of Law, Lead Public Institution of Creative Common – Philippines. The principal venue for the event will be at the Coral Ballroom of the Manila Pavillon Hotel situated at the heart of the City of Manila.

The conference aims to showcase the various initiatives of Creative Commons in Asia and the Pacific and for the stakeholders to get together in a forum to define the roadmap of Creative Commons in the region following the 2008 iCommons Summit in Sapporo, Japan.

About Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that promotes the creative reuse of intellectual and artistic works – whether owned or in the public domain. Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms that build upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach.

Currently, at least 20 country jurisdictions belong to Asia and the Pacific Region, namely: Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Mainland China, Georgia, Hongkong, India, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.

For information about the 2009 CC Asia Pacific Conference in Manila, visit the conference website by clicking HERE or view the following advisories:

Advisory No. 1 -  Registration and Accommodation Information

Advisory No. 2 - Registration and Accommodation Updates

Advisory No. 3 - Travel Advisory for Foreign Participants

Advisory No. 4 - Program of Activities

LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 3 August 2008 Issue

It is safe to assume that Filipinos, as a people, are among the ‘easily pleased’, as compared to the other nationalities of the world. This notwithstanding, they also get hurt very easily, very onion-skinned in a manner of speaking. Little things make Filipinos in general happy but even the slightest incident could also trigger their disappointments.

Thus, a typical Filipino would always have something to complain about. More likely, however, he will keep the matter to himself than openly express, confront or even directly settle his gripes.  A Filipino would rather open his heart to, and seek comfort from, people who are close and dear to him even if they do not have any stake in his concerns. Many times, complaints are settled, or even exacerbate, through the grape vine in the chain of gossips and rumors.

Nevertheless, Filipinos love to communicate and express themselves. The Philippines would not be the text capital of the world if it were otherwise. Filipinos are everywhere in the digital divide with their blogs. Internet social networks like ‘friendster’ in fact are dominated by Filipinos. Filipino passion for music as a form of human expression is simply amazing.

While Filipinos are generally expressive, it is wonder why they would rather endure for as long as they can perhaps up to boiling point, than break the status quo. Make no mistake about it but the average Filipino has the heart for change, and would always hope for it, but he will never stake his person on it, especially if it would put his immediate family in jeopardy. He would rather suffer and protest in silence in this case until the clamor for reform or change has put the bandwagon in locomotion, that is when the battle lines are drawn.

Filipinos would openly express their love for their country but judging from how they live their daily lives as citizens, it is a source of wonder whether in fact they do. What should have been good for the country more often than not has to take a back seat in favor of convenience and parochial personal satisfaction. Choosing between what is good for the country and what is good for his very own or even his family’s interests (a usual line to justify his actions), a typical Filipino would obviously take the latter.   

A typical Filipino would have big dreams, high ambitions and would love to idolize and look up at a role model in pursuing his direction. What is disturbing these days is the impatience of many Filipinos to embrace the dignity of labor and hard work to ensure their economic success. Many are easily lured to professions, false opportunities, and even criminal endeavors that offer a quick fix. No wonder that when times are hard, there are more Filipinos lining up lotto betting stations, the illegal number game of jueting continues to flourish, there are incidence of corruption both in the public and private sector, the news never get tired of reporting people being duped of investment and money scams, and many young people abandon their dreams in favor of the career fad of the times. Nowadays, the only perceived measure of true success is money, and more money. Of course, this country is not alone in today’s highly materialistic environment.

Filipinos are generally reactive than proactive. They do not anticipate, or maybe refuse to aniticpate, difficulties and problems before they arise.  And when things go wrong, finger pointing starts, there would always be somebody to blame, and seldom would someone actually take responsibility for the mess.

In good or bad times, what is striking about Filipinos is their ingrained nature of finding joy in simple things and putting humor even to the most catastrophic situation. A Filipino is usually affective and easily shed tears while at the same time laugh at the situation without being necessarily happy about it.

There is no mutual exclusivity in the psyche of the Filipino. Anything goes so to speak. Whether this is good or bad could be seen where this country is, right now.

“Love is doing something for nothing” - JNS (in response to a question posed by Mars de Castro, 24 July 2008)

LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 13 July 2008 Issue

Being the only predominantly Catholic country in Asia, the Philippines does not have a “no-fault” and ‘uncontested’ divorce to put a formal end to marital relationships, in the same way that is recognized in many legal regimes in the western world, particularly in countries like the United States and Australia.

To make sure that this state policy is not transgressed by legislation, the country’s fundamental law made explicit that marriage is an inviolable social institution and the foundation of the Filipino family which should be protected by the State.

But it does not mean that in this country spouses cannot terminate their marital bond before the death of either of them. They can certainly contest the validity of their marriage based on the legal grounds provided for by the Family Code through a protracted litigation. And one of the most usual grounds invoked to have a marriage declared a nullity by the court is the so-called ‘psychological incapacity’ of one of the spouses.

The psychological incapacity here as defined by law and jurisprudence relates to the inability (and not mere refusal) of the guilty spouse to assume the basic marital obligations of living together, observing love, respect and fidelity and rendering mutual help and support brought about by some mental (not physical) conditions that already existed at the time of marriage. It is also required that the mental disorder is serious and incurable.

They say that the legislative intent for including such a ground is to harmonize civil law with canon law of the Catholic faith, which similarly recognize psychological incapacity as a basis to terminate church marriages.

Perhaps, the legal set up is fine. It is logical to provide a legal escape to a spouse who suffers, and continues to suffer, in the hands of a spouse with grave and incurable mental disorder. In the end, no amount of a legal provision can dictate what would make a good, happy and successful family life, except the individual resolve of the members of the family, principally the husband and the wife, even if conditions of psychological incapacity actually exist.

But the same legal set up also provide a convenient legal excuse. Psychologist and law educatee Marah Sharyn M. de Castro asked – if the guilty spouse is judicially declared psychologically incapacitated so as to render the marriage null and void, how come he or she is still allowed by law to re-marry? Obviously, if the degree of mental unfitness required by law is serious and incurable, the same cannot be remedied by having another lovelife. For this, they should be disqualified to remarry as a social deterrent for a continuing breakdown in the family as a social institution, or at least there must be a legal system to re-qualify them into entering another marital life. After all, the judicial determination should be binding before the whole world, in legal parlance.

While it is axiomatic in Philippine law and jurisprudence that termination of marriage cannot be the subject of stipulation and agreement of the parties, this is more apparent than real because all the offending spouse needs to do is not to put up a legal fight. At the end of the day, the guilty spouse still benefits from the proceedings by just being silent, especially if there is contemplation of having another relationship. It is not even impossible to feign his or her psychological incapacity.

If the country wants to sustain its avowed national policy of preserving marriages through a legal mechanism, maybe there is a need to re-engineer the concept of ‘psychological incapacity’, either by law or jurisprudence, to make it work in context.

Although law is the state’s response towards the preservation of the family, one thing is sure – only love can make a marriage work. It may not be necessarily the love for each other anymore. Oftentimes, the love of parents of their children is worth the sacrifice if only to breed the next generation of a good and successful family.

LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 6 July 2008 Issue

The phrase ‘act of God’ has usual reference to fortuitous events or force majeure, an unavoidable situation brought about by natural causes that disrupts the expected course of events.

From legal contemplation, no person shall be responsible for a fortuitous event which could not be foreseen, or which, though foreseen, was inevitable, so said the Philippine Civil Code. And for a person or entity to be exempt from any obligation or liability arising from act of God, there must be an entire exclusion of human agency from the cause of injury or loss, so said the Supreme Court in a long line of decided cases.

The rationale for the legal precept, as explained by the High Court in one case, is - “when the effect is found to be partly the result of a person’s participation—whether by active intervention, neglect, or failure to act - the whole occurrence is then humanized and removed from the rules applicable to acts of God.”

The fateful sinking of MV Princess of the Stars (allegedly Sulpicio Line’s main star among its fleet) at the height of typhoon Frank last June 21 caused this nation to grieve over the tragic death of several hundreds of passengers and crew, many of whose remains would surely just be consigned beneath the surface of the deep sea. The irony of it all is that no one would ever take legal or even simply some moral responsibility for the tragedy.

Did anyone ever say “I am sorry” for this unfortunate incident?

Sulpicio Line is strong in its position that it was the result of the weather bureau’s inaccurate forecasting of the direction of the typhoon. The weather bureau said that it was never remiss in its duty of providing advisories and warnings every quarter of the day while the typhoon was here. Some observers even note that the duty of the agency is just to predict, plain and simple, and forecasting the course of nature would never be perfect. The coast guard said that it adherred strictly to existing policies and regulations, particularly on the fact that sea vessels may sail during signal no. 1 at the discretion of the ship owner.

The arguments and counter-arguments of the stakeholders could be endless and circuitous until such time that the event is relegated to the inside pages of news stories.  At the end of it all, the debate before the courts, the halls of Congress, and the various government initiated investigations would  boil down to the sole issue whether the sinking was the result of God’s will or not.  Because if it is, the families of the victims should probably claim their just compensation in heaven.

In the next few months, business, as in the past, would just be as usual until the next sea mishap.

Why cannot government require all shipping companies carrying passengers to procure a compulsory insurance of say a million pesos per passenger under a no-fault arrangement? Why cannot government allocate enough money to oversee and ensure that maritime regulations are strictly enforced considering that the more than 7,100 islands of the country are connected by water lanes and suspend or cancel the franchise of violators even before an accident struck? Surely, there are other why’s that would come to mind.

And perhaps the most reasonable explanation is that there is God to blame, after all. Or stated differently, maybe the government and the shipowners prefer to act like God.

In the case of the MV Princess of the Stars, the God in heaven cannot be blamed with certainty. But the gods of this country should be, all because there is human intervention, neglect, and failure to act.

On 3 June 2008, the Supreme Court promulgated a resolution in Bar Matter 1922 requiring all lawyers to indicate the number and date of issue of their MCLE certificate of compliance or exemption in pleadings (as well as motions) filed in courts and quasi-judicial bodies. MCLE stands for the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education program of the Supreme Court for the members of the Philippine legal profession.

Failure to disclose may result in the dismissal of the case and the expunction of the pleadings from the records.

The full text of the resolution, which becomes effective sixty days following its publication (or on 24 August 2008), may be viewed HERE.

LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 29 June 2008 Issue

There is a common notion that human beings often survive life or death and even emergency situations because of the so-called ‘adrenaline rush’. It is a situation where the processes in the human anatomy automatically react or respond to a given situation which the mind perceives to be critical.

In science, adrenaline, or epinephrine, is a hormone produced by the adrenal gland found directly above the kidney of the human body. They say that when adrenaline is secreted into the bloodstream, the hormone prepares the body for action by boosting the supply of oxygen and glucose to the brain and muscles while reducing considerably non-emergency processes in the body like that of digestion. Short bursts of physical prowess results from dilated blood vessels and air passages that makes the body pass more blood to the muscles as more oxygen are put in into the lungs in a timely and precise manner.

They say that the discovery of the adrenaline as a substance produced by the adrenal gland was first reported in May 1886 by American physician William Bates in the New York Medical Journal. It  was Napoleon Cybulski, a Polish physiologist and a pioneer of endocrinology, who isolated and identified the substance in 1895. German chemist Friedrich Stolz, however, was the first person to synthesize the hormone artificially in 1904.

Since the hormone causes an increase in heart rate and stroke volume, constricts the small blood vessels in the skin but dilates the arterioles in skeletal muscles, the pupils and air passages, starts the breakdown of lipids in fat cells, elevates blood sugar and suppresses the immune system, they say that it is important to douse the adrenaline released in the human system after a stressful situation. Before, this is done naturally because man is habitualy engaged in a lot of physical activity. But in today’s world where human exertion is less, the amount of adrenaline left in the body results in insomnia, palpitations, high blood pressure, and restive nerves.
 
In 1915, American physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon theorized the so-called ‘fight-or-flight’ response by holding that animals react to threats through a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system that prepares the animals either to flee or to fight. And they say that this response system was later recognized as the first stage of a general adaptation syndrome which regulates stress reaction among vertebrates and other organisms. Thus, the ‘fight-or-flight’ response is often used to characterize the situation known as adrenaline rush.

To be sure there is always the adrenaline that serves as a lifeline in every severe and extemporaneous situation man is confronted with. But summoning the aid and comfort of this hormone in normal times would only mean stress, a condition that produces unneeded bodily strain and causes much of the physical maladies and human ailments known in today’s world.  Unfortunately, this is how nature works.

If human beings would only heed this law of nature, they would realize that life is all about perfecting or working for that state of constant peace and tranquility in this hectic, fast-paced and crazier world. And it is all because everyone has this adrenaline that rushes automatically in times of great need. 

Reality dictates that putting the adrenaline to work unnecessarily could spell the end of life.