LOOK: Lawyers and law students members of NUPL-NCR held a “Know Your Rights” seminar and legal aid clinic in Libis, Quezon City last August 18, 2024. The activity was organized in partnership with the barangay council of Barangay Libis and Bayan Muna Party-List.
The Call of Our Times
Comrades, friends, and colleagues, we are facing difficult times. The repression is relentless. The threats are palpable and real.
But the call of our times is clear: to continue, to stand firm, and to multiply the ranks of people’s lawyers who will not flinch in the face of fear.
And to mindlessly gloss over that this award was given automatically for mere length of years as a lawyer is to bestow it to even those who make a mockery of the lofty IBP ideals of no master but law, no goal but justice, and no guide but conscience.
We reiterate our call for the immediate release of all those unlawfully arrested on September 21, for urgent medical treatment of those injured, and for a full, independent inquiry into the acts of torture, cruel treatment, and arbitrary detention committed under police custody.
It is not disorder or damage to property that most endangers society, but the daily violence of hunger, corruption, and repression. It is the poor who are punished swiftly and harshly, while those truly responsible for the country’s decay are shielded from accountability.