By Farah G. Decano

 

I cannot help but continue to laugh at this ad hominem attack hurled at me online by a lawyer during the height of the Carlos Yulo family saga. The Olympian publicly faulted his mother of theft.  This co-alumnus of the UP College of Law claimed that I have the makings of a DDS troll just because I had expressed two things on the issue: (1) my hope that the Olympian gold medalist be a good role model to the Filipino youth; and (2) my bias for the age-old tradition of respect for parents and family privacy.  By calling me DDS troll, she meant that I was a blind follower.

Me? A blind follower?  If her posts were read by some people I had the opportunity to lock horns with – mayors, Bureau directors, some members of the judiciary, some members of a political organization, and officers of a semi-government organization – they probably would have collectively sighed, “How we wish.”

Admittedly, I do not enjoy fighting for a cause all by myself.  My father had to cajole me to take pleasure in being the devil’s headache.   He said, “[B]attling dragons or evils of society for goodness’ sake is an honorable encounter.  Approach it with humour and keep your peace.”

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In the practice of my profession, I cannot be forced into blind submission just because I get paid for my services as a lawyer.  I have turned down clients who asked me to “bribe” government agencies to win them favors.  If I allowed myself to be used for money, I would be desecrating my parents’ hard-earned good names. I also do not work for multinational corporations I rallied against when I was a student. “Integrity is very important,” said my father. 

One human rights (HR) lawyer told me that one must walk her/his talk. She is saddened by the fact that some loud HR advocates are merely on swivel chairs or are online advocates for the sole purpose of enhancing their image.  After their pretentious show, they crawl back to their airconditioned offices and help perpetrate the corruption and oppression by the very institutions which pay them. 

Looking at the background of this provincial HR lawyer, she indeed walks her talk. She has defended the so-called nameless in society, the environment against big corporations, and the helpless against the very powerful Apollo Quiboloy. She hated cheating and thus was able to successfully invalidate a national board exam.  Nope, she is not even a part of any big influential law firm in Manila. As a practitioner in the province, she was vulnerable to counter-attacks but she fearlessly filed these controversial cases nevertheless.

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Unlike the previous HR legal advocate whose achievements are famous, very little is known about my aforementioned schoolmate from the UP College of Law.    I understand that she has been a resident abroad on her lonesome for more than a decade now and that she goes home to a cat while she explores legal theories in her mind.  I am neither saying anything more nor passing any judgment on her choices in life.

This lawyer obviously did not know me.  Me?  DDS?   She was not aware that I, along with Atty. Liberato Reyna Jr., chaired the Pro-Leni Rally in Marcos-Duterte dominated Pangasinan.  She also did not know that I organized and led the volunteer lawyers’ network for Leni on election day.  Doing all these was going against the grain – something that patting a feline cannot overcome.

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