2nd Sem

Legal Aid Services in the PHils

Legal Aid Services in the Philippines
by Carlos P. Medina, Executive DirectorAteneo Human Rights Center

Introduction
The Philippines is an archipelago of over 7, 100 islands located in Southeast Asia. Its population of 70 million people is predominantly Catholic. It was a Spanish colony for four centuries. After it declared independence from Spain in 1898, the Americans took over and governed the islands until 1946. Its form of government is presidential, patterned after the U.S. model. It has a bill of rights which provides, among others, that: "Free access to the courts and quasi-judicial bodies and adequate legal assistance shall not be denied to any person by reason of poverty."
Hence, the provision of legal assistance is a constitutional mandate. The government complies with this mandate through the following: the Public Attorney's Office, courtappointed lawyers, and selected government agencies. Aside from the government, there are many non-government organizations which provide legal assistance to underprivileged groups.. Several law schools also have clinical legal education programs which allow law students to practice law for the benefit of poor litigants.

However, to enable parties to resolve conflicts without having to go to court, the government has established a mechanism for alternative dispute resolution or mediation at the village level.

The Government's Legal Aid System
The government's legal aid system consists of the Public Attorney's Office, lawyers appointed by the court as counsel de oficio, and legal aid services extended by some government agencies.

Public Attorney's Office
The Public Attorney's Office (PAO) is a government agency whose main function is to provide free legal assistance to indigent persons in all civil, criminal, labor and administrative cases, including representation before the public prosecutor's office.

Aside from legal representation, PAO services include counseling, preparation of legal documents, administration of oaths on affidavits and pleadings, and mediation of claims and disputes. The PAO also assigns lawyers to police stations to assist, persons under investigation and conducts jail visits to interview prisoners on their legal problems.

To avail of PAO services, a person must be an indigent, i.e., without income or whose income is insufficient for the purpose of hiring a private lawyer. [Note: Ile following are considered indigoes: Metro Manila residents whose family income do not exceed P6,000 (US$150) a month; residents of other cities whose family income do not exceed P5,500 (US$137. 50) a month; and residents of all other places whose family income do not exceed P5,000 (US$125) a month. ("Family income" refers to gross income of the litigant and his/he spouse; it excludes income of other family members.) (US$ 1=P40)]

The person seeding assistance can go to any of the over 225 PAO offices around the country. Most PAO offices are located in local government centers or in court buildings.
PAO lawyers do not extend legal services to the following:
a. parties who fail to pass the merit or indigence test;
b. parties already represented by private counsel;
c. landlords of residential buildings in collection or ejectment cases against tenants;
d. conflict of interest cases;
e. prosecution of criminal cases, except in the absence of a prosecutor in lower courts; and
f agrarian reform cases, which are handled by the Department of Agrarian Reform.

Lawyers Appointed by the Court
When an accused in a criminal case appears in court without a lawyer, it is the duty of the presiding judge to ask him if he wants to have a lawyer and, if he does, to appoint a lawyer for him if the accused cannot find one for himself In the absence of a PAO lawyer, the judge may appoint any lawyer present in the courtroom, and the appointed lawyer is duty-bound to extend free legal assistance to the accused. The lawyer, in turn, may claim a nominal amount as compensation from the government.

Government Agencies with Legal Aid Office
Some government agencies have legal aid offices for the benefit of individuals who are covered by their programs. For instance, the Department of Agrarian Reform has a special unit which helps farmers in land reform cases. The Philippine Overseas Employment Agency provides legal aid to overseas Filipino workers. Likewise, the Commission on Human Rights is mandated by the constitution to extend legal assistance to the underprivileged whose rights have been violated or need protection.

Legal Aid Services by Non-Government Organizations
Non-government organizations (NGOs) share substantially in the burden of extending free legal services to underprivileged Filipinos. These include the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Alternative Law Groups, and other legal groups.

Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP)
There are around 45,000 lawyers in the Philippines, and their main organization is the IBP. All practicing lawyers are required by law to be members of the IBP. The IBP is organized into chapters all over the country, and each IBP chapter has a legal aid office for indigent litigants.

Alternative Law Groups
Alternative Law Groups (ALGs) are private legal organizations formed for the defense and empowerment of disadvantaged sectors such as the urban poor, workers, women, prisoners, fisherfolk, peasants, indigenous people, children, and victims of human rights violations. The issues they address are public rather than private, i.e., issues which affect big groups or communities in general, including the environment, human rights, and sectoral issues.
ALGs have a bias for the disadvantaged sectors of society and believe that the people in general serve as the primary force for social transformation. Hence, they work closely with people's organizations and other NGOs. They also use an interdisciplinary approach in addressing issues.
To attain their adjectives, ALGs engage in the following activities: litigation, particularly "impact cases"; education and training of sectoral and grassroots groups; and policy reform and advocacy. Some of them have internship programs which employ law student volunteers in their work Most, if not all of them, have working relationships with government agencies.
There are over 20 ALGs in the Philippines. Most consist of young lawyers and paralegals. They render legal assistance for free and survive with support from funding agencies and out of their own income-generating activities.
An example of an alternative law group is the Ateneo Human Rights Center, a lawschool-based NGO which aims to: (a) form human rights advocates; (b) make justice accessible to poor victims of human rights violations; (c) monitor government compliance with human rights instruments; and (d) educate the public an law and human rights.
To attain its objectives, the Center has an internship program where law students/lawyers are assigned to work with human rights NGOs for six years to one year. The Center also has an education unit which conducts seminars on human rights laws and issues far government personnel, NGOs end the basic sectors, and a research unit which engages in policy advocacy. The Center's litigation unit handles cases involving human rights violations, particularly cases affecting children and migrant workers. In conducting its work, the Center relies heavily on student volunteers from the Ateneo Law School.

Other NGOs with Legal Aid Programs
There are many other NGOs which render free legal assistance to indigent persons. Some of them are church-based organizations, while others have bees set up by private individuals (e.g. politicians) and/or communities to provide legal assistance on specific issues. The Free Legal Assistance Group, for instance, is well known in the country for providing legal assistance to political prisoners and death penalty convicts. Many of the existing law firms also provide legal assistance on a limited basis.

Legal Aid Programs in Law Schools
En 1986, the Philippine Supreme Court adopted Rule 138-A, the Law Student practice Rule. The Rule provides that a fourth year law student who is enrolled in a law school's clinical legal education program approved by the Supreme Court may appear without compensation in any civil, criminal or administrative case before any trial court, board or officer, to represent indigent clients accepted by the school's legal clinic.
A student's appearance must be under the direct supervision and central of a lawyer duly accredited by the law school. This means that the supervising lawyer must be physically present during the hearing, particularly where a student appears before a lower court (i.e., Regional Trial Court), and all legal documents must be signed by the supervising lawyer in behalf of the legal clinic. The reasons for the "physical presence!' requirement are;
a. to avoid a miscarriage of justice due to the incompetence or inexperience of law students;
b. to enable the law school clime to protect itself from any potential vicarious liability arising from some culpable action by their law students; and
c. to comply with the principle that no person can practice a profession without the necessary qualifications, particularly a license.
In inferior courts, however; where the issues and procedure are relatively simple, a law student may appear in his personal capacity without the supervision of a lawyer.
The rules safeguarding privileged communications between attorney and client apply to similar communications received by the law student. Moreover, the law student must comply with the standards of professional conduct governing lawyers. The failure of a lawyer to provide adequate supervision of student practice may be a ground for disciplinary action.
Based on the Law Student Practice Rule, around seven law schools in the Philippines have set up clinical legal education programs approved by the Supreme Court. It is through these programs that the law schools provide free legal assistance. However, there are many other law schools without clinical legal education programs but still provide free legal assistance through their legal aid offices,
Clinical Legal, Education Program of the Ateneo Law School
The Ateneo Law School's clinical legal education (CLED) program has two components: classroom teaching and actual legal work. CLED students register for an elective course (Clinical Legal Education I and III) and attend classroom sessions on legal practice. At the same time, they are assigned in teams to handle actual cases under the supervision of law professors and lawyers. The legal work is done in coordination with the Ateneo Human Rights Center which implements the legal aid program of the law school.
The CLED program of the Ateneo, Law School has the following objectives:
a. provide quality legal assistance to grassroots organizations and indigent individuals who are unable to obtain legal services;
b. train and expose law students to actual law practice under the supervision of competent lawyers; and
c. foster among students the concept of service, social awareness, and human rights advocacy.
In the handling of cases, the program aims to introduce law students to a concept of legal aid in which the client is actively involved in decision-making and direction-setting, and where there is always an effort to empower the client and to transfer legs technology to him.
Alternative Dispute Resolution/Mediation
To avoid long and costly litigation, the government has set up a system known as the Katarungang Pambrangay of Barangay Justice. The barangay is equivalent to a village and is the smallest political unit in the government.
Barangay Justice is a system of amicably setting disputes among family members and residents at the village level. Its objectives are:
a. to promote the speedy administration of justice and implement the constitutional mandate to preserve Filipino culture and strengthen the family as a basic social institution;
b. to decongest the clogged dockets of courts of cases indiscriminately filed; and
c. to enhance the quality of justice through decongestion of court dockets.
Under the system, all cases involving parties residing in the same city/municipality and same barangey must first be brought before a barangey conciliation council (which is organized into several conciliation panels) for amicable settlement, and only where amicable settlement is not reached as certified by the conciliation council may the parties file a case in the regular courts. A case filed without going through such a process may be dismissed by the court.
However, the Barangay Justice system has no jurisdiction in the following cases:
a. one party is the government;
b. one party is a public officer and the dispute relates to the performance of his work;
c. cases involving real property located in different cities/municipalities;
d. any comp 1 aint against a juridical person;
e. disputes involving parties residing in different cities/municipalities;
f offenses with a maximum penalty exceeding one year imprisonment or a fine exceeding P5,000;
g. offenses where there is no private offended party (e.g., jaywalking, littering, gambling, or prostitution);
h. disputes which require urgent legal action to prevent injustice;
i. disputes involving the agrarian reform law;
j. labor disputes
k. actions to annul judgment upon a compromise; and
1. such other matters prescribed by the President.
An amicable settlement reached through a conciliation panel shall have the force and effect of a final court judgment if not repudiated (on grounds of fraud, violence or intimidation) within 10 days.


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posted by Graciella @ 1:05 AM