magna carta

(MAG-nuh KAHR-tuh)

noun: A document or a law recognizing basic rights and privileges.

From Latin magna carta (great charter). After Magna Carta, a charter of political and civil liberties that King John of England was forced to sign on June 15, 1215. It was revised several times over the years, and it became an important symbol, establishing for future generations that there were limits to the royal powers.

"A magna carta for industry development recognizing that 'small and medium enterprises are the dominant constituent of the industry' is an absolute necessity."
Integrated Approach Needed For Construction Industry; The Island (Colombo, Sri Lanka); Jun 18, 2008.

Invention requires an excited mind; execution, a calm one. -Johann Peter Eckermann, poet (1792-1854)

Medina, Bello nominated to top CHR post

By Purple S. Romero
Exclusive to Abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak

He may have failed to clinch the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) chairmanship, but Carlos Medina might have a shot to lead the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) after current Chairperson Purificacion Quisumbing retires on May 5, 2008 along with four commissioners.

Medina leads the nominees of the Philippine Working Group (PWG) for the ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism for the top CHR position. Abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak got a copy of the list, which will be submitted to the Office of the President today.

Another contender for CHR chair is human rights lawyer and former Justice Secretary Silvestre Bello. We learned that outgoing Chairperson Quisumbing recommended him to the post.

We asked Bello if he has been offered the position. He said that he was informed that he’s being considered "but nothing is definite."

Bellos currently sits on the board of San Miguel Corporation as government representative and is one of President Arroyo’s advisers.

Aside from Medina, PWG nominated Loretta "Etta" Ann Rosales, co-chairperson of the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court, and Ambassador Rosario Manalo, former chairperson of the Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women for the CHR top post.

Rosales served as the representative of the party-list Akbayan in 1998 up until 2007 and is the founding chairman of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers.

Manalo is the undersecretary of foreign affairs in charge of International Economic Relations. She held various positions in women-centered organizations, one of them as the president of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women from1984 to 1986.

Mother and daughter

For the positions of four commissioners, PWG nominated two incumbent officers of the CHR – executive director Jacqueline Mejia and director for government linkages Karen Dumpit—and Sister Crescencia Lucero, executive director of the human rights group Task Force Detainees of the Philippines.

Informed sources told Abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak that Cecilia Quisumbing, daughter of the outgoing CHR chairperson, is being eyed as one of the four commissioners. Cecilia is currently executive director of the Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC), headed by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita.

Cecilia’s work includes overseeing and coordinating efforts of various law enforcement agencies in addressing human rights issues. Overall, the PHRC exercises oversight function.

Medina told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak that PWG, a group of leading human rights advocates in the country, formed its own selection committee a month ago with former CHR chair Pauline Siocom as one of the committee members.

"I only learned that I’m one of the recommendees three weeks ago," he said.

Lack of transparency

However, Medina said the selection process for CHR posts lacks transparency.

He said that unlike the officials in COMELEC and the Civil Service Commission, the chair and commissioners of CHR are appointed directly by the President and need not go through the Commission on Appointments (COA).

"I think the selection of the CHR officials is more critical compared to other government offices because the public could not intervene in the process. Unlike in CSC or COMELEC, opposition to nominations could still be voiced when they [nominations] pass through COA," he said.

Medina lost the COMELEC chairmanship to retired Justice Jose A.R. Melo, who was appointed to head the election body in January 2008.

Melo, who served as executive assistant during the time of President Arroyo’s father, former Pres. Diosdado Macapagal, headed the Melo Commission which linked state agents to the spate of extrajudicial killings of activists.

While the odds were stacked in favor of Melo for the COMELEC‘s top seat then, Medina said that this time, "there could be a chance" that he gets the CHR leadership due to his expertise and experience on human rights work.

Fighting chance

Medina, secretary general of PWG, is the current executive director of the Ateneo Human Rights Center. He is also the co-convenor of the Legal Network for Truthful Elections, a civil society body formed in May 2006 which monitors the canvassing of votes during elections.

A graduate of law from Ateneo de Manila University, Medina completed Master of Laws at the University of London and earned his degree on Master of Public Administration from Harvard University.

He was legal counsel of One Voice, a group of topnotch lawyers chaired by former COMELEC chair Christian Monsod which challenged the Sigaw ng Bayan petition for people’s initiative.

In his argument, Medina pointed out that an initiative is a proper mechanism for a constitutional amendment, but not for a revision. Sigaw ng Bayan claimed in 2006 that they gathered enough signatures that showed the public’s support for a switch from a presidential form of government to parliamentary.

Medina now handles the Senate’s case filed against former socioeconomic planning secretary Romulo Neri and his use of executive privilege to dodge the Senate’s questions on Arroyo’s role in the approval of the now botched NBN-ZTE deal.

Expand CHR

Medina said that if he would be appointed CHR chair, he would expand the coverage of the constitutional body and create CHR provincial and city offices. He would also lobby for increased resources, equipment and more staff with human rights expertise in the commission.

Second, he aims to increase partnerships with the civil society groups and other stakeholders.

"It is important to expand partnerships with stakeholders both in the national and international level," he said.

Medina said that the resolution of extrajudicial killings remains to be one of the challenges of CHR.

THE POWER OF WOMEN IN ATENEO LAW SCHOOL

From: The Dean's Corner, Dean Cesar L. Villanueva
http://www.law.ateneo.edu/

24 August 2007

Last Tuesday (21 August), The Manila Times came out on its front page with the news item Women Outpace Men in Executive Derby, confirming previous news that “WOMEN are now outnumbering men at the top of the corporate ladder in the Philippines and the trend is set to increase over the coming years,” confirming previous report in Malaya (03 August) that “Women are slowly dominating in Philippine offices. . . . [where] Filipino women have been steadily outnumbering men in executive and supervisory positions in the past five years. . . [which] also noted the steady ‘widening gap’ between the two genders since 2002.”

The source of the report is no less than Ateneo Law alumnus, DOLE Secretary Arturo Brion (valedictorian, ALS Class ’74), who happens to be married also to Ateneo Law alumna, Tonette Brion (ALS Class ’82). According to the news item, the key to the state of things is “access to education, with one in three of the estimated 12.8 million working women having reached college compared to only one in five of 20.1 million working Filipino males.” “With higher education, women have better chances of also getting better paying and higher positions,” Brion said.

Even in the Supreme Court today, of the fifteen Justices, five are lady justices, more than in any time in the history of our Judiciary. There is no doubt that with more lady lawyers being appointed to the Judiciary, it will not be long before we have the more women Justices and shortly our first Lady Chief Justice.

We in the Ateneo Law School, have long come to an often gut-feel consensus that women now rule the Law studentry. The urban legend has it that on average 55% to 60% of the student population would be women, that women students tend to be more studious and conscientious in their school work and consequently, the survival rates and the honor role achievements of women in the Law School is better than for the male population.

We looked at the statistics since School Year (SY) 2001-2002 up to the first semester of the current school year, and found the following facts relating to these gender issues, as follows:

1. Student Population – The student population is reasonable divided almost equally between female and male students over the periods covered, thus:

School Year	Semester	Female	Male	Ratio
2001-2002	First	337	336	50%-50%
	Second	311	280	53%-47%
2002-2003	First	373	330	53%-47%
	Second	355	309	53%-47%
2003-2004	First	372	339	52%-48%
	Second	364	322	53%-47%
2004-2005	First	409	353	54%-46%
	Second	378	318	54%-46%
2005-2006	First	431	342	56%-44%
	Second	402	318	56%-44%
2006-2007	First	367	364	50%-50%
	Second	354	335	51%-49%
2007-2008	First	379	369	51%-49%

 

In any given semester during the period in review, it would be an exaggeration to conclude that female student dominate the male students in numbers. However, that student population in any given semester in slightly in favor of women is a testimony of how public perception of the legal profession has changed since my generation’s time as student in the Law School where then in a class of say forty students, only about eight to ten of them would be women. There is no doubt that the law profession is considered to no longer be a “masculine” undertaking, and that each year the law profession is considered by the best and brightest women of our society to be a premium choice that competes with other preferred professions, like medicine and accountancy. Although women do not dominate the student population, there is no doubt that women power and influence has come a long way in the Law School.

There are two dominant theories on why the “fairest and the brightest” have been attracted to the legal profession. The first theory posits that it is television programs like Ally Mcbeal and other lawyer program which show women lawyers who not only look and dress well, but show both courage and intelligence, that have attracted the new generations to the legal profession. The other more plausible theory, is that the growth of the legal practice from pure litigation, to alternative practices, like special projects, IP and cyberspace law, media and entertainment law, and family law, has allowed many well-motivated and highly intelligent women to find a niche in the legal profession for the full expression of the women’s role in society.

2. Survival and Attrition Rates – The figures in Law School in the past recent years, do indicates that women tend to be more disciplined and more dedicated to the study of law, and therefore tend to achieve better survival rates. The urban legend in Law School is that from a 60% dominance in the freshmen years, the women students survive better to bring the women component in the graduating batch to 70% in their favor, with men constituting only 30% of the graduating population.  The actual figures do not support this.

The Freshman Batch SY 2001-2002 started with 128 women and 149 men (46%-54%), with ratios in favor of men, but graduated four years later, as ALS Batch ’05 (at the end of School Year 2004-2005) with the following number: 78 women and 76 men (51%-49%) — indicating a much higher survival rate for the women members of the batch (61%), compared with the men (51%).

The Freshman Batch SY 2002-2003 which started with 152 women and 118 men (56%-44%), graduated as ALS Batch ’06 (at the end of School Year 2005-2006). with the following number: 100 women and 58 men (56%-41%) — indicating that over the four years of studies the women had a higher survival rate than the men:  65% for women, 49% men.

The Freshman Batch SY 2003-2004 started with 107 women and 126 men (46%-54%), and graduated last April as ALS Batch ’07 (who are taking the Bar Examinations this September) in following numbers: 73 women and 80 men (48%-52%) — indicating that over the four years of studies the women had only a slightly higher survival rate than the men:  68% for women,  63% men.

The Freshman Batch SY 2004-2005, started out in the following ratio:  138 women and 118 men (54%-46%), and have reached the senior first semester in the following numbers: 98 women and 68 men (59%-41%) — indicating that women component of the batch will have a better survival rate (71%) at graduation in April ’08, than the men (58%).

The figures over the covered period cover do indicate therefore that the women students tend as a group to better meet the challenges of the J.D. Program than the men components in the batch.

3. Graduating With Honors – The statistics for the seven graduating batches, show the following statistics:

Men have outnumbered the women for class valedictorian: 7 to 2

Women have outnumbered the men for class salutatorian: 7 to 2

showing that there has always been an equal battle for the first and second top places between men and women, but with men coming on top more often than their women counterpart.

When it comes to those who graduate with honors in the last seven years, the figures are as follows:

School Year	Female	Male	% Ratio
2000-2001	6	10	38% - 63%
2001-2002	19	6	76% - 24%
2002-2003	17	21	45% - 55%
2003-2004	17	12	59% - 41%
2004-2005	18	14	56% - 44%
2005-2006	29	10	74% - 26%
2006-2007	20	5	80% - 20%

 

Although the tendency in the last two years has been for women seniors to dominate the honors places, the indication over the last seven years do show that the male and female students have about the same intelligence and discipline to outperform one another, in the honors game.

The Law School has in fact acknowledged by action the importance of women in the development of its curriculum. The first and by all accounts, the youngest ever appointed dean, Dean Cynthia Roxas-del Castillo, can rightfully be called the “Mother of Ateneo’s J.D. Program,” for it was during her long tenure (1990-1999), that not only saw the first J.D. graduates from the Law School, but actually nurtured into full maturity and glory the J.D. Program, which undoubtedly is now the gold standard in Philippine legal education.

Although the faculty profile still indicate more male faculty than female (115 versus 19), the last batches of appointment to the faculty were 4 to 1, lady lawyers. There is no doubt that the power and influence of women will continue to contribute to the development of legal education in the Law School, and certainly in the country as a whole, for there can be no doubt that the Atenean lady lawyer is a formidable person to reckon with.

2007 ATENEO ART AWARDS WINNERS ANNOUNCED

The 2007 Ateneo Art Awards, the country's premier contemporary art prize,
were conferred on three young Filipino visual artists for their
outstanding contribution to the definition and development of modern and
contemporary Philippine art at a formal ceremony at the Rockwell Tent on
8 August 2007 following the 2007 Ateneo Art Awards exhibition at the
North Court, Power Plant Mall from 2 - 7 August 2007.

The three winners are Lyle Buencamino for the exhibition "A Bowtie for
John Lyle" at Mag:net ABS, Wawi Navarroza for the exhibition "Saturnine:
A Collection of Portraits, Creatures, Glass & Shadow" at the Silverlens
Gallery and MM Yu for the exhibition "Thoughts Collected, Recollected" at
Finale Art Gallery.

The winners were also each bestowed with the Ateneo Art Gallery
International Studio Residency Grant, the only program of its kind
organized by a Philippine cultural institution. Buencamino received the
Ateneo Art Gallery - La Trobe University Bendigo, Australia Residency
Grant, Navorroza the Ateneo Art Gallery - Artesan Gallery Singapore
Residency Grant and Yu the Ateneo Art Gallery - Common Room Bandung,
Indonesia Residency Grant. It provides them with roundtrip airfare,
allowance, accommodation and a work studio for three weeks, as well as an
invitation to exhibit at their respective host venues.

The other artists short-listed for the awards were Racquel de Loyola,
Bembol dela Cruz, Nona Garcia, Winner Jumalon, Yasmin Sison, Jay Ticar,
Mac Valdezco and Jevijoe Vitug.

The theme for this year's exhibition, Global/Vernacular, is recognition
and credence, acknowledging Philippine art has its own nuances yet
believing it moves beyond local context to reverberate cross-culturally.
The theme realizes the question of national identity in the face of
increasing globalization and the challenge to increase the profile of
Filipino art and artists abroad.

Ateneo Art Awards 2007: Global/Vernacular is presented by the Ateneo Art
Gallery together with Unionbank, Metro Society, Power Plant Mall,
Rockwell Land, Smart Gold and Y Style with the support of Artesan
Gallery, Common Room Networks Foundation, Arts Network Asia, La Trobe
University Bendigo, Timbuk2 and Absolut Vodka. The exhibition runs at the
Ateneo Art Gallery from 21 August to 24 September 2007.

For further inquiries on the Ateneo Art Awards, please contact Clarissa
Chikiamco at 426-6488 or at cchikiamco@ateneo.edu. # # #

Clarissa Chikiamco
Project Coordinator
Ateneo Art Gallery
Ateneo de Manila University
Loyola Heights, Quezon City 1108
Tel (+632) 426-6001 ext. 4160
DL  (+632) 426-6488
Fax (+632) 426-6488
------------------

Ateneo Law School