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)

Starring: Joco Sabio (sexy dancing!), Angel Aguinaldo (sexy saxplaying!), Paolo Javier and Aaron Co (sexy strumming!) and the rest of our blocmates.

Justice Nimfa Cuesta Vilches (our homeroom teacher) of the Ateneo Law School gets a surprise birthday party from the class of 1-E 2010.

venue: Room 109, ateneo professional schools.

Start:	Dec 15, '07 09:00a
Location:	La mesa watershed

AHRC Adopt-a-Tree Project Dec 10, '07 6:06 AM
for AHRC's contacts

Dear All,

As part of our continuing celebration of the Center's 20th Anniversary, we are inviting all of you Adopt-a-Tree Project on 15 December 2007 (Saturday) at the La Mesa Watershed.

[Some info] The La Mesa Watershed covers a total area of 2,700 hectares, 2,000 hectares of forest lands and 700 hectares of man-made lake that serves as a water reservoir. It is the last forest of its size in Metro Manila and it straddles Quezon City, Caloocan City and Rizal Province. It is a vital link to the water requirements of 12 million residents of Metro Manila considering that 1.5 million liters of water pass through this reservoir everyday.

FAQs on the event:
Q: How can I help?
A: There are 2 ways:
1. Adopt a tree for just Php 300. It might seem like a big amount but it would also be a big in the continuing reforestation efforts in the La Mesa Watershed. Plus, you don't have to shoulder the entire amount by yourself (but, you're more than willing to do so), get your friends, org, block, or barkada to join you in sponsoring a tree, that way, more people are involved.
For more info on the Sales of the Seedlings, please contact the following people:
NASH - 0915.274.3161
BO - 0918.929.7595
or contact Atty. Lyan Carlos or Tita Vhangie at the Center (899.7691 local 2117)

2. Join us on Saturday in the Potting Activity in La Mesa. Here is the schedule on Saturday:
7:30am - assembly at rockwell drive entrance (cashier steps)
7:45am - we leave for la mesa
9:00am - expected time of arrival at la mesa

OR you can opt to go straight to la mesa and meet us there at 9am. The organizing committee will be arranging for transpo for those who will be coming from Rockwell. To be sure you're counted and not left behind on Saturday, please contact
MEG - 0917.862.1700
JO - 0917.938.9547

Q: How do I get to the La Mesa Eco Park?
A: Take Commonwealth Avenue towards Fairview. You will be passing the following landmarks: UP Diliman, Iglesia ni Cristo Templo Central, Ever Gotesco, Sandiganbayan, Litex, Mercury Drugstore. Turn right at East Fairview Subdivision’s Winston St. then right at Marlboro St. all the way to Pall Mall St. where you should turn left. Turn right at the first corner. You will enter the La Mesa Dam Guard House. There is only one road to take then turn left to the parking lot, in front of which is the gate to the park. The lagoon is further down the path.
For commuters, take a Fairview-bound FX, bus, or jeepney from Philcoa by the entrance to the UP-Diliman. Take note of the abovementioned landmarks and get off at the East Fairview Subdivision. At the gate, you should find plenty of tricycles that can take you to the Eco Park.

Q: How long will the activity take?
A: The activity proper would only take less than an hour. (so those who have Saturday classes can go back to school after)

Q: But what if I want to stay longer and enjoy nature after the activity?
A: By all means, you can stay longer in the EcoPark and enjoy the place. In fact, they have other amenities in the park, such as:
a. swimming pool (contrary to popular belief, you swim on a pool and not on the dam itself) - charge is only Php 80 (for people above 3 ft.) or Php 40 (if you're below 3 ft.)
b. boat ride - boats for rent at the rate of Php 100 for 30 minutes (each boat can accommodate 4 people at most)
c. biking - bicycles can be rented out for Php 50-80 per hour depending on the type of bike
d. they also have a picnic grove. but i suggest we bring garbage bag so we won't leave any trash in the park

Need more info? You can reply to this e-mail or contact me at 0917.817.4610 or 0922.816.5623.

Maraming Salamat!


Ryan Quan
Batch Buyonero
Summer 2005

SONETO NG SUMILAO 

Isang araw sa tapat ng DAR

Dalawang patak ng luha
ang dumaloy sa mata
ni Samuel Merida.

Tatlong madre
ang nakikipagtalakayan sa papag.

Apatnapu't apat at isang daang
ektarya ng lupang ninuno
pinuhunan ay dugo.

Limang taong gulang pa lamang
ang anak ni Nanay Hilda
nang iniwan niya sa
Sumilao, Bukidnon.

Ngunit sampung taon
na ang lumilipas,
wala pa ring
kongkretong lunas
ang masalimoot
na pagmamartsa
ng mga abang magsasaka

Libo-libong kilometro
mula doon hanggang dito.

Kahit nakapapaso ang araw,
mas mainit ang tawag
nilang sa katarungan ay uhaw.

Estudyante man
o ganap na abugado,
dalawang dekadang
nananatili ang hamon sa iyo.

Libo-libong kilometro
mula doon hanggang dito.

Libo-libong kilometro:
paglalakbay
patungo sa puso mo.

-----------------------
December 8, 2007.
Habang nagmamaneho
paikot ng Quezon Memorial Circle,
sa okasyon ng ika-20 Anibersaryo
ng Ateneo Human Rights Center.

Gusto ko sanang basahin ito noong Sabado, kaso, nahihiya naman ako at may nakahandang programa na ang mga Chabogets (ang bagong Sembreak batch ng AHRC). Siyempre, nahihiya din ako kasi hindi rin naman kagandahan ang tulang ito at madaliang sinulat sa biyaheng pa-Loyola. Salamat kay Quani at kumportable ang biyahe mula Rockwell. Salamat kay Patring at maginhawa ang biyahe pabalik.

Ngunit nang magsalita si Atty. Kaka ng Balaod-Mindanao, parang bumalik muli ang lahat ng mga gabing maalab sa piling ng mga hindi kasing swerte natin.

Sila na nagtatanim, ngunit siya namang nagugutom.

Sila na nagsilang ng lahing-ninuno ng bawat Pilipino, ngunit binabawian ng karapatang mabuhay ng may dignidad.

Hindi ko alam kung kakayanin ko pang matulog ng mahimbing muli.

"Limang P sa Palawan"

Vida Soraya Verzosa's summer legal internship at the Environmental Legal Assistance Center in Puerto Prinsesa City, Palawan, Philippines. This was part of the Ateneo Human Rights Center's Summer Internship Program 2007. The video was first launched at the AHRC Gabi ng Pasasalamat last Aug. 24, 2007 at the Ateneo Professional Schools Blue Room.

Background audio: Interview with Ka Edong and Atty. Gerthie Mayo Anda at the DYPR radio station, "Mundo Ko 'To" radio program.

N.B. Huwag kayo maniwala sa pag-ibig na part kasi pa-cute ko lang yun. ;-)

The F word.
[first published: Pinoy Era Webzine, Vol. II No. 11, November 2007
to view the original article, click here]

At the Quezon City Jail, I conquered my fear. My four letter F word today is about that debilitating feeling that creeps into the souls of the unprepared, insecure and the distrustful: fear.

I walked into the QC jail this morning, together with the other interns of the Ateneo Human Rights Center, with a feeling of having to conquer my biases about detention prisoners. When I was first asked over the summer what sector I was totally averse to, I replied, without skipping a beat, that I disliked the jail. No matter how persuasive the presentation of the Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation (HLAF) was during the Basic Orientation Seminar, I couldn't get over the mental picture of menacing hoodlums tattooed all over, reeking of compounded sweat and human waste, sporting bloodshot eyes and battlescars from gang riots. Stories of how congested the jails were didn't help any. Even if my co-intern from Zamboanga shared how much she learned during her internship experience, I was undeterred. With all my bourgeois squeamishness, I still found the thought of getting within 10 feet of accused detainees as something outside the radar of my desire to embody the Ignatian spirit of being a (wo)man for others. 

Until I decided to attend the Paralegal Training (PLT) this morning. The night before, my stomach resembled a Gordian knot as I asked questions on how we were supposed to conduct it. When we arrived at the facility managed by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), my heart began to palpitate. I felt so horribly unprepared! I was certain that the Murphy's Law would operate anytime soon. However, when a wave of humid, EDSA-polluted air suffused with human smells hit me as we queued in, I realized that it wasn't as bad as I imagined it to be. I didn't keel over and pass out. I wasn't instantly taken hostage like in a Prison Break scenario. I didn't get catcalls and rude comments one sees in jail movies of the 1980s.

In fact, I felt so ashamed at how prejudiced I was about their plight. My thinking was warped into the paradigm that since they committed felonies, they ought to rot behind bars. I hated my Criminal Law 1 exams since they were so pro-accused to my mind, even if we had the best Crim professor in the entire law school. I frowned at those who advocated for the abolition of capital punishment, convinced that there should be harsher penalties for hooligans, in addition to divine retribution. In a way, I was also boxed into the mentality that these men were evil creatures who were meted out just punishment for their acts (and omissions) no matter how inhumane the conditions were. How wrong was I. For all we know, a significant percentage of those incarcerated really deserve to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. After all, they were just that. Accused. Most of the newly-committed haven't even seen their attorneys, much less, convicted of the offenses charged. 

As I began to talk about the rights of the accused, my assigned topic for that PLT, our audience, a streetsmart group of around 20 detention prisoners, transformed into something that made my initial fears seem like an absurdity. The laws became more than inscribed words that I had to methodically scribble onto a bluebook during exams. They began to represent the difference between human rights violations and liberty for those who were accorded due process. The disparity between the utopian vision of a world where justice prevails and the reality of how deprived the detainees were was a starkly drawn contrast.

By the time the other interns were discussing Criminal Procedure, the provisions of the Revised Rules of Court began to make sense as the detainees raised questions about their personal circumstances and how they could eventually be released. I was amazed at how intellligent they really were, since they actually knew more about their cases than I could possibly understand from hardbound volumes accumulating dust in my bookshelf. The questions a professor hurls at you during recitation can hardly compare to being asked real life legal advice from someone whose freedom was at stake. 

After the PLT, the BJMP warden's staff toured us around the detention facility. It resembled a self-contained community, albeit worlds apart from the Rockwell center. There were stores, a mini-library, medical clinic, chapel, school, basketball court, gym, study area, crafts corner and even a barbershop. There was an Iglesia ni Cristo samba on the 2^nd floor while the Sputnik gang played basketball on the first floor. A Chinese TV show blared out Mandarin dialogues from the cell of Chinese detainees while "pupils" in a literacy program learned how to write letters to their loved ones outside. There was a framed and autographed picture of Mark Herras, dedicated to his father, one celebrity dad out of the over 3, 000 inmates crammed into a space built for 800.

There was really nothing to fear but my own preconceived notions and my tendency to consider those accused in a criminal proceeding as people to be regarded with suspicion and worse, condemned to undergo a difficult process of defending one's liberty. I, like the rest of the Philippine population, was ignorant of the flipside to every story behind a criminal complaint. My hope and my prayer is for our country's leaders to eventually see that the way we treat the least of our (detained) brothers and sisters, is a reflection of how our society (de)values human life. 

What comes to mind now is the first line from an oft-performed Joey Ayala song: "'Diba tayo'y narito, upang maging malaya, at upang palayain ang iba…" In that sense, one could really see the dual role that lawyers and paralegals play in transforming fear to that which we all cherish yet oh so easily take for granted until it is violently curtailed: freedom.

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.

The Ateneo Human Rights Centre's mission and vision plus photos of activities.

Music: P-HI-LI-PPINES by IoHann Garcia and Vida Soraya Verzosa
(1024K WMV version)