Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
At the 53rd Anniversary and Induction of Officers of the Women Lawyers’ Association of the Philippines

[Delivered at the Manila Hotel, December 7, 1993]

Women lawyers
in development

THIS MAY COME as a surprise to some of you, but the truth is that I almost became a lawyer myself by enrolling at the University of the Philippines College of Law in 1954. But faced with the choice of spending long nights either with the cases assigned for study by then Dean Vicente Abad Santos or with my new bride Ming, I chose the latter.

I hope you will agree that if there is anything nobler than a lawyer’s calling, it is that of love and marriage, which, in this particular case, won the day.

So I may not be what you would call a compañero, but I assure you that I have often enough shared the company and the wisdom of lawyers—sometimes, to my regret—to know what their concerns are.

Too many male lawyers

There is a popular impression that we have too many lawyers in this country for our own good. The fact is that there are indeed too many male lawyers, not all of whom are good.

This notion has been helped, no doubt, by the fact that more and more people are filing new cases much faster than our courts can dispose of them. In other words, we seem to have become a litigious society.

That may be so, but I would like to believe that it is a healthy sign, since it could mean that people have become more aware of their rights and responsibilities, and submit themselves to the rule of law in settling their disputes.

The increasing participation of women in the legal profession is another sign that our society is maturing.

Women lawyers now make up about 11 percent of the membership of the Philippine bar. It is reported that there are now as many female as male students in our law schools. The bar, once an exclusive male preserve, has been happily infiltrated by women—happily, according to male law students.

Starting with a very small core group 53 years ago, the Women Lawyers’ Association of the Philippines now counts some 500 members. With more women now interested in the legal profession, that number is bound to rise dramatically.

Women in the law

I cite these figures because they are a clear and welcome illustration of how far our society has come in recognizing—indeed, in requiring—the contributions of women to the national life.

As you all know better than most, the legal profession demands the observance of the highest standards of intellectual performance and moral courage.

Not even the most intelligent person can become a lawyer if he or she lacks the personal commitment—the guts—to serve the cause of justice, which can often be an unpopular, thankless and even risky undertaking.

Given the traditional culture of “machismo” against which Filipino women must compete, the entry of every new Filipina lawyer or judge into the system is a victory not only of the individual female, but of womanhood as a whole.

Today we need your contributions more than ever. We stand on the threshold of unprecedented economic opportunity and social change, of radical transformations that will make the Philippines of the twenty-first century a vastly different country and society from that which we know today.

We are at a crucial transition between the backwardness of a past largely dictated by colonial attitudes and elitist interests, and a self-determined, people-empowered future where every Filipino can lay claim to his or her fair share of prosperity and responsibility.

It will not be an easy process.

We have had, first of all, to secure the peace and our national stability. We still have to wean ourselves away from the culture of violence that has held sway over our thinking, our performance and our politics for too long.

I speak here of the armed insurgencies which, for many decades, threatened to tear our country and people apart, in the pursuit of narrow ideologies that have now proved themselves irrelevant and unfit to meet the needs of our people.

I speak of the crimes that have dominated our newspaper headlines. In the worst cases, the participation of Government officials and law enforcers themselves in these crimes has undone much of the good, honest work of the great majority of our civil servants.

Glamorizing criminals

I speak, too, of negative attitudes promoted by some elements in the media and the movies—attitudes that tend to romanticize violence and glamorize criminals—to uphold these as a natural part of the Filipino way of life, as a quick and easy means to resolve conflict and gain influence.

What could be more horrifying, and yet tragically instructive, than that recent story of an eight-year-old boy who apparently shot dead the family maid because of a petty argument over a TV program?

This boy, clearly, was a product of that glamorizing of violence I mentioned earlier. It is a culture we shall have to root out thoroughly if we are to move fully into the circle of progressive and enlightened nations.

Economic growth by itself would be meaningless, unless we promote peace, harmony and tolerance as basic values for every Filipino to acquire and practice.

We have already gained much ground against violence.

On the political front, the peace process has been proceeding slowly but surely. Except for a very small and increasingly isolated core group based abroad, the radical Left has begun to come over to our side by the thousands, across the bridges of peace we have built.

We are also pursuing promising peace initiatives with the Moro National Liberation Front and military rebels.

There has been no letup as well in our war on crime. In this, we will be aided by a new death-penalty bill, which I expect to sign into law very soon.

Gaining ground against violence

Capital punishment by itself is not enough as a deterrent. But in concert with our other efforts to prevent and suppress crime, it should complete the full circle of justice by which society can and should protect itself against its worst elements.

I am especially glad that this new bill provides for the death penalty in the case of plunder by public officials in excess of P50 million.

Let me say here and now that I will have no objection if any public official, so convicted, is sent to the gas chamber, if this will serve as a clear warning to others who continue to view public office as an opportunity for private profit.

We are in the middle of a wide-ranging campaign to dismantle private armed groups. Under “Oplan Paglalansag,” we have been able to break up more than 400 such gangs, from whom we have collected more than 24,000 firearms.

But promising as this beginning has been, I know that much more remains to be done, and this continues to be one of the most important goals of my Presidency.

When I leave this office, I shall want to leave behind me a safe and secure society — one in which genuine democracy and economic progress can continue to flourish without fear of armed oppression.

At the same time, you and I know that unless we achieve rapid and enduring economic growth—not only for the few but for the many—the seeds of violence rooted in poverty will continue to thrive in our society.

This is what I call the economic imperative: the need to give material substance to our democracy. Indeed, no democracy can last long unless it provides adequately for the basic material needs of the people.

The economic imperative

Toward this end, we have formulated “Philippines 2000,” which is our strategic vision of national development into the coming century.

“Philippines 2000” aims to attain for the country a level of prosperity similar to that of a newly industrialized country by the turn of the century.

Within the next five years, this should translate into the following results: a GNP growth rate of 6 percent to 8 percent; per-capita income of at least US$1,000; and a reduction in the incidence of poverty from the present 51 percent to around 30 percent.

This can be achieved if we sustain our emphasis on two main elements of that vision: global competitiveness and people empowerment.

By global competitiveness, we mean that the Filipino should be able to match his products and services with the best that the world has to offer. This involves democratizing the economic structure in order to provide equal opportunities through deregulation, liberalization, privatization and dismantling of monopolies, cartels and other onerous concentrations of power and resources which are injurious to the public interest.

This also entails the provision of a stable political and security situation and an efficient bureaucracy.

We shall also have to improve our productivity by ensuring the availability and affordability of investible funds and physical resources, adequate and efficient infrastructure, and a well-educated and skilled workforce.

By people empowerment, we mean providing our people with the opportunities, rights and resources to pursue their individual and collective capabilities to the fullest. This can be achieved by creating new and viable livelihood opportunities in the countryside, as well as by opening avenues for more meaningful participation in government.

Meanwhile, in the management of the development process, we will be guided by the following principles:

1 Devolution—the transfer of decision-making to the lowest level possible;

2 Deregulation—the removal of red tape and Government competition with the private sector;

3 Decentralization—the transfer of resources and services to the countryside, and;

4 Democratization—the provision of equal opportunities for everyone within his level of skills.

The WLAP’S role

The Women Lawyers’ Association of the Philippines can help attain this vision, through its many worthwhile activities and projects, particularly those it has undertaken for the welfare of women and children. They have been among our most neglected citizens. Certainly, your work will be invaluable in empowering them.

I commend you for giving free legal assistance to the poor. That, too, is more than an act of mercy; it is a function of democracy, of ensuring that justice is made available to those who need it most.

For these, and for your many other contributions to national development, I offer you my thanks and congratulations, with the hope that your Association will continue to be Government’s effective partner in the years ahead.

The law and justice must be above gender. But you bring to it what a woman brings to every marriage and every household: a sense of shared responsibility.