[OPINION] The law is the tool you wield, not the god you serve
We are publishing the commencement speech of Dean Mel Sta Maria, delivered on Saturday, May 17, during the 2025 Silliman University College of Law graduation.
It is an honor to be the commencement speaker today at the 2025 Silliman University College of Law graduation.
If you speak to any of the law students I have had the pleasure of teaching in the past, you will find out that one of my most often repeated lines is that law school is a microcosm of real life. As in real life, in law school you experienced fear, disappointment, pressure, loneliness, and even failure. There were surely moments of self-doubt and tears.
However, you sit here today, members of the graduating class, as a testament to the fight each and every one of you put up against all this adversity. In the process, I am sure you discovered your own unique power, a spark of resilience that only grew stronger as your years of law school wore on. You have triumphed more times than you could have imagined. As you leave the halls of this hallowed institution, you will find that, that never-say-die attitude, that undefeatable courage that pulled you through the many long and lonely nights of studying and brutal recitations, will also serve you well in the real world.
Your graduation is no doubt a joyous occasion, but I have an unpleasant truth to impart to all of you and that is: Law school was the easy part.
As I said, Law School is a microcosm, and the real world it reflects, the real world we are about to send you into, is a brutal and chaotic place. You will meet challenges far greater than the threat of recitation on days you have not read anything at all. The obstacles life will throw at you will be more intense. They will be overwhelming. At times, they may even be horrifying, and unbelievably impossible.
They will also be confusing. Because while law school may have presented you with a clear dichotomy between the right answers and the wrong ones, while your professors may have, correctly I might add, taught you all the most important laws and how they are to be applied, and while the picture of law and morals formed in your head through nights spent poring over jurisprudence, is a cohesive one, the real world is not so simple.
The real world is a cacophony of competing interests. Rather than black and white, you will be greeted with a sea of gray through which, as young lawyers, you will have to wade to seek out the truth. Instead of the noble and lofty sentiments we believe the legal practice should be enveloped by, you will often be in situations where these grand notions of morality are far away echoes, drowned out by the pragmatism that your clients’ very real problems demand of you. You may even sometimes find law and morality to be at odds with one another. In times like this, what can you do?
I do not know what specific legal challenges you have ahead of you, so I cannot provide any definitive answers. I would, however, invite you to look at where a dodged adherence to the law, without particular regard for morality, reason, justice or fairness, has brought us. It is no secret to say that the past few years of both the Philippines’ history of legislative and executive acts as well as jurisprudence will provide many examples.
Everything from the removal of a chief justice by means outside of impeachment to the investment of billions in public funds in some ill-advised sovereign fund, to the refusal to allocate much-needed funds to our state’s health insurance corporation in the face of the paltry public health facilities in the country, will surely give you pause about this revered concept, the “law,” which you have devoted so much of your young life to.
But this is not to discourage you. After all, I do not think anything I have said just now is new to anyone here. What gives me hope is that you have pursued your law studies despite all that has been done by those more powerful than you. You have had the unenviable pleasure of going through law school during some of the most turbulent times our country has seen both politically, economically, and even socio-culturally and you have carried yourselves most admirably. Many challenges will come, but I am confident you are all more than capable of facing them with skill, courage, civility and most of all, integrity.
Let me then, as an advance welcome to you, my soon to be colleagues in the legal profession, offer some advice as you embark past the four walls of Silliman University.
First, be willing to be uncomfortable. As lawyers, we should cultivate in ourselves the courage to push through challenging situations. We should want to ask the hard questions and make the difficult decisions. No growth is had beyond your comfort zone.
The very first act you will perform before signing the roll as a lawyer is to take an oath promising that, “without any mental reservation or purpose,” you will only obey “the legal orders of the duly constituted authorities,” “support the Constitution,” “do no falsehood,” and will not “promote or sue any groundless, false, unlawful suit, or give aid nor consent to the same.” You may not fully understand it now, but this oath is easier said than done. Be willing to endure the confusion, the uncertainty, the hardship, that comes with fulfilling your oath as lawyers.
Second, speak out, and speak loud. In your life as lawyers, you will encounter many authorities: Executive and legislative officials, justices of the Supreme Court, judges, law firm partners, heads of offices, and others. Never be afraid to voice out your position, even if you disagree with them. It is through disagreement that a society grows, and through the exchange of thoughts that ideas are sharpened and perfected.
Your freedom of speech is a most cherished right, and your positions as lawyers will give your speech, rightly or wrongly, incredible weight. Exercise this freedom, even against authority, when it is warranted. Do not be afraid.
Third, exercise discretion. As much as you speak out, be thoughtful about your words and your influence. Remain accountable for everything you say especially now when it is so easy to shoot from the hip on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, or what have you. Do not add fuel to unfounded fires. Be conscious of the views you amplify.
Lawyers have this tendency to use the law as a referendum on the merit of everything, when the reality is far more complicated. As we all know, not everything legal is moral.
Never let your enthusiasm for insisting that something can be done under the law overtake your good judgment on whether it should be done. Uphold the dignity of our profession through conscience-based discourse remembering that law is the liberating tool you wield, not the harassing weapon you employ, not the god you serve.
Fourth, build community. In the nascent stages of advancing your advocacies, you cannot do it alone. Community is the foundation of all humanity’s greatest achievements. The road ahead will be difficult. Find your allies where you can. Be a loyal and steadfast friend.
Fifth, and finally my last tip, do the hard work. Embrace the effort it takes to achieve the heights of your dreams. Passing the bar, defending a client, researching an argument, winning a case, these are all very difficult things to do. You must embrace them. Do not let difficulty deter you, because ours is a hard profession, but a worthwhile one.
Even when you feel helpless against all the authority and power you are up against; even when the nation around you is complacent; even when you find evil and darkness converging on you, take a deep breath, push through, and do your work. It can be exhausting. But you will do it.
And in the end, whatever the outcome, you will feel an inner satisfaction, quiet joy and fulfillment, and even a craving to do more, discovering that lawyering is not simply work, but a vocation.
On this note, I leave you with this quote from Portuguese philosopher Baruch Spinoza:
If the way which, as I have shown…seems very difficult, it can nevertheless be found. It must indeed be difficult, since it is so seldom discovered; for if salvation lay ready to hand and could be discovered without great labor, how could it be possible that it should be neglected almost by everybody? But all noble things are as difficult as they are rare.
I think I speak for your Dean and all your professors here when I say that we hope and are excited to soon welcome all of you to our noble profession.
Thank you, happy graduation and Congratulations! – Rappler.com