By Rosario Brenda Gonzalez
You could have followed the way of several lawyers we talked to and merely shrugged your shoulders that bizarre and baseless criminal complaints have been lodged against activists and development workers
Why this doesn’t bother them as there are always legal remedies that the judge – they always assume would side with – is beyond our lay persons’ kind of thinking
It is similar to government employees who witness corrupt practices but look the other way, pretend that’s just part of the system, and bribe money is anyway, factored in the budget
Until, you realize what is actually being said is – that is the way things are and it will not be like that all the time. Business as usual, even if not everything is to your liking. Nothing is perfect.
What is admirable among lawyers of your kind, is you do acknowledge that a wrong has been done.
To make up a story that is not original to accuse activists and development workers is really becoming a pattern that you have always decried
You address it squarely in the best way possible – defend the wrongly accused
Yet you do not stop where your professional engagements end
Just like everything else in life, the line of work that you so love and honor
Also reflects what other similar entities – bureaucracy, businesses, educational institutions – manifest
Corruption, lack of concern and genuine freedom for those without wealth and power
And so, the peoples’ lawyers are always a sight to behold, alongside the peasants, workers, indigenous people, fisherfolk, urban poor, informal settlers, and marginalized women and children
With courage and commitment, honor and humility, and warm smiles and witty banter
= = = = =
This human rights week, we start publishing the poetess’ poems as a victim of trumped up charges by the State using the weaponized Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020. The charges have since been junked by the Malolos RTC.
Rosario Brenda Gonzalez is a long-time development worker. A BA Journalism graduate of UP Diliman, Ms. Gonzalez has been a project evaluator and development management trainer for more than three decades. Prior to that, she was a human rights and church worker.
