NUPL congratulates the UP National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers graduates for leading a lightning rally during their commencement exercises. Dean’s Medal recipient and former UP-NUPL Secretary General Macky Valenzuela used the occasion to challenge his fellow graduates to exercise moral courage wherever their legal careers may lead them.
His message was clear: lawyers must never become agents of systemic corruption, corporate exploitation, or projects that dispossess communities in the name of development.
The graduates chose commencement—a beginning, not a culmination—to affirm that the study of law carries obligations far greater than the pursuit of prestige, position, or financial reward. It demands fidelity to the people and to the cause of justice.
NUPL welcomes this affirmation of values that have long guided generations of people’s lawyers. The pursuit of justice demands not only legal competence but also the most steadfast commitment to defend rights and freedoms, resist tyranny, and hold the corrupt and the powerful to account.
We salute the UP College of Law Class of 2026 and UP-NUPL for carrying this tradition forward. May the spirit demonstrated at your commencement continue to guide you through the Bar and, thereafter, in the practice of law in the service of the Filipino people.
#BeTheBestLawyersMoneyCannotBuy
