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Law scholarship bill to boost poor’s access to legal services

By Jose Cielito Reganit

April 4, 2023, 6:33 pm

<p>Rizal 4th District Rep. Fidel Nograles<em> (Photo courtesy of House of Representatives)</em></p>

Rizal 4th District Rep. Fidel Nograles (Photo courtesy of House of Representatives)

MANILA – Rizal 4th District Rep. Fidel Nograles on Tuesday supported a bill seeking to provide free education to aspiring lawyers in state universities and colleges (SUCs) in exchange for working in the government after they pass the bar examinations.

Nograles, a legal aid advocate, said the bill passage would greatly help the poor in gaining access to free legal services.

"A legal scholarship law would help in addressing our issues on legal access especially for the poor. This is a bill with noble intentions, and I support this wholeheartedly," he said in a press statement.

Nograles was referring to House Bill (HB) No.7433 that was filed by Davao City 1st district Rep. Paolo Duterte, Benguet Rep. Eric Yap and ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Edvic Yap, seeking to provide free legal education to eligible students who will then render a mandatory two-year return of service (ROS) in the Public Attorney's Office or any government agency lacking lawyers.

In backing the passage of the bill, the lawmaker cited data from the Foundation for Economic Freedom which showed that there is roughly only one lawyer for every 2,500 Filipinos. In comparison, the United States has one lawyer for every 240 citizens.

"Currently, the PAO does not have enough lawyers, kaya't gaano man nila gustuhin (no matter how they wanted to) because of the lack of numbers, ay hindi nila matugunan nang husto ang pangangailangan ng mga kababayan natin (they could not sufficiently address the legal needs of our people)," he said.

"This measure would be a great boost towards this end as the PAO would have a steady stream of lawyers coming in every year," Nograles said.

He said a bill that seeks to establish legal aid programs in schools which he has filed would be a good complement to HB No. 7433.

HB No. 6325 or the "Legal Aid Program" bill mandates the establishment of legal aid programs in both private and public law schools in the country to augment the services rendered by the PAO and other public offices that offer free legal assistance.

"A mandatory legal aid program in schools would mesh well with the ROS program. Perhaps we could find a way to harmonize these two measures so that our legal scholars would have the proper training habang nag-aaral pa lang sila (while they are still studying)," Nograles said.

"Maaari tayong gumawa ng parang (We can make some sort of a) service track, where scholars would be part of the legal clinic and then render the ROS. This way, they already have a real-time experience once they start serving at the PAO," he added. (PNA)


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