For legal ethics-related research purposes of the readers, may I share the full text of Mr. Tony Meloto’s advice to the law graduates of San Beda College of Law (2008), which my US-based friend Mr. Manuel Caballero has emailed to me, to wit:
1. Take the high road. Go for integrity and honor above money and power. Your vision for success must be anchored on principles and values, not on greed and ambition. Money and power will come… and will last… and will be a source of happiness… if they are earned without shame and if they are used to promote the good of others.
2. Serve the greater good. Commit yourself to the bigger collective benefit, not just pursue your limited self-interest. Your families’ welfare will best be served not by confining them in the walls of your exclusive villages, but by joining us work for social justice until there are no more Filipinos who are squatters in their own land and no more troubled slums that will raise criminals who will harm our children.
3. Seek the highest interest of the lowest and the weakest. Serve the poor and you will gain a rich country. Help us liberate the urban poor from the control of squatter syndicates who rent out or sell the rights to private and public land that they do not own. Provide us legal support in securing land to relocate victims of calamities and conflict to safer areas where we can build productive Gawad Kalinga communities for them. If we do that effectively and expeditiously, we will stop many of them from squatting in Metro Manila and other cities; and hopefully, even do reverse migration back to the countryside in the future to those presently living miserable lives in our urban slums. We will recover our lost treasure and regain our social capital by bringing out the gold in our people who have been covered with dirt for generations because of neglect and exploitation.
4. Raise the bar of excellence in public service. Erase the public perception that all politicians in our country are corrupt. This is not an insult only to politicians, but to you and me as well as citizens of this country. In fact, it would be great if you would consider running for office and help bring new politics to our country and restore public trust in our political system. If you want to serve, go back to the provinces where you come from with the right motivation to be a good leader and not simply to become another traditional politician who has mastered the art of winning elections by any means. In our engagements with over 360 LGUs, I have always challenged the top local executive to become “the best mayor” his town ever had. Most of them have responded enthusiastically and we are seeing more and more of them becoming agents of change and builders of hope in their municipality. If we fuel the momentum and continue to raise the bar of excellence, the ugly shanties that constantly remind us that we are a third-world country will soon disappear, the fields will be green with abundance, and those who have taken arms will go back to the comfort of their families and start to live in peace.
5. Finally, love this country with all your heart and value the privilege of being Filipino. Before you are a lawyer, a judge or a mayor, you are first a Filipino. For you to live in honor, you have to treasure your birthright and to raise the dignity of our people most of whom live without honor because of poverty and corruption.
Note:
Mr. Meloto is the founder of the Couples for Christ’s (CFC) Gawad Kalinga, a housing NGO. He was the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Man of the Year in 2006 for his said accomplishment.
Mr. Caballero is a columnist of the New Jersey-based The Filipino Reporter, a widely read Philippine-oriented newspaper in the East Coast. He is a CFC leader in
