RE : 17th HOUSE OF DELEGATES
M A B U H A Y:
Peace!
May I suggest the following in re: the holding and management of future annual sessions of the august IBP House of Delegates:
- After the evening opening ceremonies on the 1st day, the entirety of the next day (2nd day) and of the 3rd day of the House of Delegates should be focused on pure DELIBERATIONS, not lectures and speeches.
The 17th House spent only 2 hours on deliberations (10 AM to 12 PM on the 3rd day). By then, many had gone home early to their respective chapters, trying to beat their plane schedules in Manila.
Only one keynote speech should be allowed during the opening ceremonies.
The entire event should be devoted to pure and focused deliberations of the resolutions, motions and ideas of the delegates from the chapters throughout the country.
The House is not an MCLE venue or a class seminar but a full-blown DELIBERATIVE BODY of the IBP as enunciated in its By-Laws.
We should grasp the rare opportunity of full and open deliberations by the House of all issues raised by the delegates that affect the IBP, the legal profession, the rule of law, the justice system, the legal education, and the state of the nation and of the world.
The House is the Congress of the 40,000-strong IBP lawyer population.
Let its DELIBERATIVE NATURE be optimized to the fullest for the good of the IBP and the legal profession.
- It is best to conduct a professional pre-House SURVEY among the chapters and regions to identify the vital issues the chapters might wish to raise in the next House and to measure the degree of their knowledge and attitudes towards such vital issues.
From among the many vital issues, the Board should focus on the top five (5) vital issues for plenary workshop and deliberation purposes.
Let us professionalize the preparation, planning and management of the House, especially in re: its substantive, qualitative and deliberative content.
- The report of the House should be published in two (2) national dailies and circulated among the mass media nationwide.
The Board should budget funds for the purpose.
Let the general public know our vital resolutions and ideas.
It is not enough to publish the abstract of the House in the IBP Newsletter, whose internal circulation is very limited.
The IBP should sponsor the law deans in the country, the presidents of the law student councils in the country, the heads of selected top law NGOs in the country, and the presidents of the judges associations, court personnel associations, a representative each from the National Press Club, the JUCRA and the JUROR (judicial mass media), a JBC representative, a CA and a SC representative, a representative from the law and justice committees of both houses of Congress, a representative from the DOJ, a representative from the Ombudsman, and a representative from Malacanang Palace to attend the House as non-delegates and observers, free of charge, with the power to participate in the deliberations but without the power to vote.
We need their academic and objective feedback and ideas to protect the House from the genetic danger of intellectual inbreeding, so to speak.
- The delegates should be asked to evaluate (using a professionally prepared form) the House proceedings before each adjournment.
The goal is to improve future House sessions.
- Let us avoid unwholesome official nocturnal activities, which border on sexual misconduct and alcoholism, just as what had happened on the 2nd night of the 17th House, as reported to me by some delegates who were present during the Viewsite nocturnal activities on the 2nd night. (I left after dinner to rest early and avoid such things).
Let us behave, as members of the noblest profession, with dignity, maturity, seriousness, deep and analytical thoughts, and wisdom.
The aforementioned actions of the delegates of the 17th House in the said restaurant in Tagaytay City I am sure have and would spread among the people of Cavite, thru the waiters and personnel of the restaurant and other non-IBP guests then present at the site who had observed the behavior and sex and booze-oriented nocturnal activities the 17th House during the 2nd night thereof.
I suggest you refer this letter to the IBP Board and national secretariat officers for their consideration.
I hope you and the IBP Board will not mind if I fax a copy hereof to the SC Chief Justice, for his information.
All of the foregoing suggestions are being made in good faith for the good of the IBP and all its chapters nationwide, as well to truly serve the general good of the legal profession and of the justice system in the country. I have no intention of offending the feelings and dignity of the IBP Board and Secretariat.
May your day be blessed, enlightened and liberated. Thank you.
Sincerely.
Atty. Manuel J. Laserna Jr., A.B., LL.B., LL.M.
