Headline
Chief Justice Puno: re-engineer the legal system to give the poor greater rights and better protection
In his talk given during the 1st Alphan Lecture Series on 27 February 2009, the Chief Justice reiterated the need to make the law responsive to the needs of the poor and marginalized. “Unless they find law a friend, they will later treat law as their enemy. They will resist law if all they experience is its lawlessness.”
“The four pillars of legal empowerment of the poor are acquisition of property rights, business rights, labor rights, and access to justice. These will enable the poor to fight for equality and help them gain significance in society,” the Chief Justice said.
{More»} Events
HypoTHERMIA: A Dance Party»
Dance the night away on Saturday (January 31), 8:00PM, at Club Industry, Bellagio Square, Tomas Morato, Quezon City.
Protect Judicial Integrity»
We, the students of the University of the Philippines, in solidarity with the youth of the land, join the outrage against the assault on the independence of the Supreme Court and strongly condemn the machinations contrived by nefarious and evil forces to initiate impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno (UP Law Class of ‘62).
Winners of essay tilt bared»
The Alpha Phi Beta Fraternity – UP College of Law congratulates the following students for winning the 1st Ditto Sarmiento Essay Writing Competition.
Alphans launch Ditto Sarmiento Essay Competition»
The tilt aims to inculcate critical thinking among the youth inspired by the heroic battle for freedom of Ditto Sarmiento who was imprisoned during the dark days of martial law under the Marcos dictatorship.
Alphan News
Alphans in GMA7’s I-Witness»
Alphans talk about honor and decency amid the public outrage faced by Greek-lettered societies for the death of UP student Cris Mendez allegedly by the hands of another fraternity.
Campus
Students call to defend Judicial independence»
Armed with placards and lighted candles, the protesters denounced the planned impeachment of Chief Justice Reynato Puno (Law ‘62) as serious moves to serve “partisan, selfish, and unpatriotic interests.”
“We are calling for the defense of the Chief Justice not necessarily because he is our Fraternity Brother, but because he embodies what the Judiciary needs – credibility, integrity, unsullied independence, and probity.”
Workshops
Legal Empowerment of the Poor in the Philippines»
In 2006, the United Nations (UN) High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (HLCLEP) together with our organization, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – Asia (ESCR-Asia), and key government agencies jumpstarted the national process on generating social dialogue and discourse on the issue of poverty and exclusion.
Profiles
Portrait of the Writer as a Valiant Hero»
In the editorial, entitled “The Collegian and Suppression” Ditto’s remembered words appeared: “Kung Hindi Tayo Kikibo, Sinong Kikibo? Kung Di Tayo Kikilos, Sinong Kikilos? Kung Hindi Ngayon, Kailan Pa?”
Prized Editorials
What Academic Freedom Means (Abraham Sarmiento Jr., 1975-1976)»There is too much truth in society that will be left unexposed if the academic freedom to seek and to express the truth as one personally sees it is unduly limited to the confines of laboratory walls. And to so construe the concept as a right pertaining to the university as an institution and not to the scholar as well is plain confusion.
