Speech - Induction of IBP Albay Chapter Officers 2007-2009
May 3, 2007

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

One of the most inspiring authors we may all have read is the famous Danish writer Henrik Ibsen. From his powerful pen flowed these words, and I quote:

“A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.”

End of quote.

Ibsen’s words are true for all communities as it is with the Philippines’ legal community. We are like a ship. And today we say that Ibsen’s words have found fulfillment in our midst. For the Integrated Bar of the Philippines has never lacked men and women who are prepared to take the helm of leadership.

Tonight we swore in the next batch of Albay chapter leadership. The command of the ship has been passed on. The voyage continues. And I affirm my belief once more that the ship is in safe and very good hands. Congratulations.

Congratulations and I wish you all the best in this voyage. You will need all the blessings and Divine Guidance your can muster, because the voyage is fraught with peril; the sea is rough; and the port of our destination littered with challenge. Leadership in the legal community has never been an easy ride; it has never been for the faint-hearted. Leadership in the legal community has always been reserved for those with a heart for service, a boundless love for country and countrymen, and an overflowing faith in our collective ability to reach our common goal.

The voyage towards that common goal began with those who have just passed on the torch of leadership to the new batch of Albay chapter officers. And so, let me take the opportunity to congratulate and thank them as well. [ Here, acknowledge outgoing officers one by one. Cite also their significant accomplishments.]

Indeed, life is like a 400-meter relay race. The outcome of the contest depends on the speed and performance of every runner in each of the 400-meter lap. It depends on how fast every runner sprints and how well he passes the baton to the next runner.

On both score, the outgoing set of officers have done well. I, therefore, say thank you and congratulations on behalf of the entire national Integrated Bar of the Philippines.

I hope the end of your formal term does not see the end of your vital involvement in the affairs of the IBP. Rather, I pray that your graduation will merely be a new chapter in your long history of service to the country and the legal community. If there is one thing we have all learned about leadership, it is this: that there is no retirement from this job.

One merely moves from an area of service to the other.

To the new set of officers, may I offer this word of encouragement: service to the country and the IBP is one very rewarding task. The cost is great; but the benefit of service is even greater.

The greatest benefit, of course, is the very privilege of being allowed and being able to serve. We, lawyers, are meant for service. Ours is a profession that is exercised on bended knees, no different from the imagery of Christ washing his disciples’ feet. Contrary to the notion of some, we do not merely wallow in the imagined prestige of the legal profession. Rather, we exhaust all physical and intellectual energies - sometimes even emotional energies – just to make sure that the needs and interest of Justice are served.

May I also share one important learning. If the lessons on leadership gained from my years of service to the IBP were to be summed up in one sentence, I would borrow the words of the American statesman John Quincy Adams.

He wrote:
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
Adams is right. There are many functions of leadership. But inspiring others is perhaps the most important. Especially in the IBP. Experience tells me that our peers in the legal community are adequately equipped with the vision and the intellectual prowess to pursue the goals of the legal community. All that the leadership needs to do is tap that vision and prowess, channel their energies into a common determined effort, and rally them to the cause.

The same is true with our nation as a whole. Inspiration is our most important offering to a country that has a sagging morale, bereft of affirmation, devoid of a vision that would rally them to a united cause, and sadly wanting in inspiring figures who would unleash their productive energies for nation-building.
That is the void you need to fill. Such is the void WE all need to fill.
Let us begin within. Let us continue what we have already achieved – the strengthening of our own internal unity. A united legal community assures our countrymen that the cause of justice shall remain in good hands.
On this point, we live by the inspiring words of George Washington Goethals, the chief engineer of the team that built the Panama Canal. He left us these timeless words:
“Faith in the ability of a leader is of slight service unless it be united with faith in his justice.”
Once again, I wish you the best of luck. Thank you. May the inspiration you are to share with others be returned to you a million-fold.