Atty. Dennis Gorecho
Alternative Lawyering and Neri Colmenares
Many alternative lawyers are guided by the words of former President Ramon Magsaysay: “Those who have less in life should have more in law.”
Alternative lawyering is legal practice either individually or through legal resource organizations that work with the poor and marginalized groups, identities and communities towards their empowerment, greater access to justice, and building peace.
Alternative lawyers do often take on careers outside of the mainstream, but what differentiates their work is their commitment to a different route to, and conception of, justice.
The poor who have less resources in relation to the rich, will often have to bank on the law to safeguard their rights.
In building a more accessible, inclusive and dynamic justice system, all remedies allowed by law should be completely exhausted for their protection. The semblance of being given “more” in law is imperative to equip them the chance of equality which they do not enjoy.
I was exposed to alternative lawyering as a volunteer law student for the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) led by Chel Diokno.
Lawyers, as professionals, are expected to uphold the ethical and moral values that are said to be essential to the fabric that holds society together.
Perhaps this is also the principle behind the legal advocacies of senatoriable Neri Colmenares, who is my batchmate from the UP College of Law. He finished his Bachelor of Arts in Economics at San Beda College before joining UP Law.
Neri considers the law and how it is formulated as very alienating. In an interview, he recalled how even in his days as a UP Law student, he would inquire about legal phrases and how they can be simplified to make them understandable to the people.
“Law alienates the people because of the language. So I promised to myself that if I become a lawyer, I will explain and make sure that my pleadings are as simple as possible,” Neri said.
As a lawyer and legislator, he tried to explain issues as simply as possible, including laws that may appear complex attributing to his long experience of working and immersing with the basic sector.
Born in Bacolod, Negros Occidental, Neri was active in the struggle against the late former President Ferdinand Marcos’ leadership in the 1970s.
He was active in the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) and the Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP), and became the Visayas regional chair of the Student Catholic Action (SCA).
He was arrested and tortured for protesting the ban on student councils and campus publications.
As a torture survivor, he continued to assert and defend human rights.
Neri is the chairperson of both the Makabayan Coalition and the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), a national association of human rights lawyers in the Philippines.
He has been actively assisting families of victims of human rights violations, calling out government abuses, fighting disinformation, and filing relevant legal measures to put a stop to what progressives deem as anti-people policies.
This despite repeated attempts to discredit him, including relentless red-tagging with his photos plastered in several cities and the filing of trumped-up kidnapping and other related charges.
Neri has been a three-term representative for Bayan Muna and a senior deputy minority leader in the 16th Congress.
He also sponsored the Free Mobile Disaster Alerts Law, the Human Rights Victims Reparation Law, the Anti-Torture Law, the Local Absentee Voting Act for Media and the Special Election Precincts for PWDs and Senior Citizens Act.
He ran but lost in the 2019 midterm elections, coming as 24th with more than 4.6 million votes.
Neri also acted as a petitioner or counsel in the complaint filed by mothers of extrajudicial killing victims in the International Criminal Court, being a human rights lawyer.
The hashtag “#WeWantNeri” became viral as calls for Vice-President Leni Robredo to include Neri in their senatorial slate for the 2022 elections emerged online which was announced on October 8, 2021.
Makabayan officially said that they will be supporting the Leni-Kiko tandem based on their agreement on issues, including the pandemic response and heat, peace, sovereignty, human rights, and uplifting the lives of the poor, workers, farmers and indigenous people.
Neri advocates for free public health services, an established national minimum wage for workers and agrarian reform and agro-industrial development.
Colmenares joins the other senatorial aspirants that were endorsed by 1Sambayan, namely: Senators Risa Hontiveros, Leila de Lima, Antonio Trillanes, Teddy Baguilat, Chel Diokno, Alex Lacson and Sonny Matula.
(Peyups is the moniker of University of the Philippines. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the Seafarers’ Division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan Law Offices. For comments, email info@sapalovelez.com, or call 09175025808 or 09088665786)
