The VFA

We were having our daily dose of recitation in Criminal Law earlier today. We were discussing about the elements of Criminal Law namely general, territorial and prospective. Under the generality rule, all those who live or sojourn in the Philippine territory who committed crimes, must be prosecuted by Philippine courts. Same is true for the territoriality rule, any crime committed within Philippine Territory should be prosecuted by Philippine Courts. Of course subject to exceptions. Provisions of treaties entered into by the Philippine Government and those laws of Preferential Application. An example of a treaty exempted from the generality and territoriality element is the Visiting Forces Agreement as an implementing agreement to the main RP-US Defense Mutual Treaty entered into by the US and RP Governments with a purpose to strengthen the ability to resist armed attack to both countries.

Some provisions of the Treaty says that in general, Philippines has primary jurisdiction over offenses committed by US personnel except in cases where, crimes committed against another US personnel, crimes committed against property of another US personnel, crimes committed against property of US, crimes committed against National Security of US and those punishable acts or omissions done in the performance of official duty.

This one is terrible, it says in the treaty that even to cases not bounded by exceptions, meaning those cases really triable in PH Courts, US can request for the PH to waive its right to exercise jurisdiction, and this one we have no choice but to agree. There are consuelo de bobo for this, we cannot grant the US request if the case is under Heinous Crimes, Anti Child Abuse Law or Dangerous Drugs Act.

The last question posted by Atty. Amurao to one classmate was "Do you think this is fair?"

Of course not! How on earth can that provision be fair? If for example, your sister was raped by US Military personnel covered by VFA and then the US requests for PH to waive the right to prosecute and the Philippines without any choice granted it, is it fair? NO!

Then I remembered the rape case to a Filipina and US soldier Smith, I'm pretty sure the US at that time requested for waiver of jurisdiction and of course the PH agreed. What now happened to the case? We don't know. What happened to the Filipina? Is she still living a normal life? We don't know. what happened to Smith? Can he sleep sound at night knowing that a girl thousand miles away is still suffering for what he did? We don't know.

This is rather a sad, sad realization.

The Line-up

I only allowed myself a few minutes to spare for this post so I better hurry. It was our first meeting in Criminal Law 1 earlier. We were really nervous waiting for our professor. There have been rumors that we will be under the legendary Atty. Maximo Amurao but then i didn't believe until a very tall, old, no nonsense man entered the room. Everybody was quiet because his voice was too not loud, I cant remember the opposite of loud. LOL. He went on to discuss the rules in class. Everyday will be graded recitation, only hand written notes are allowed in class, and we were lucky because his book has already been published so we can open it in class provided we were not the one answering the question because if you are, of course you cannot open anything. We can maximize absences subject to the maximum allowable absences as required by the school.
According to stories, Atty. Amurao is very strict in everything. Last semester for their Criminal 2 class, no one passed the course. The previous years, only 2 o 3 people pass his subject. No one really wants to be under him. As for first impression, he is really a no nonsense man. He even told us he is doing this for our own good what if he says we are already litigators and during the trial we run out of arguments, will we say, "excuse me your honor pls give me an hour to review" of course we cannot, so as early as this stage in our study of Law, we will undergo his scrutiny, one thing that he does best. He told us, we will pray that during his class a storm will land so classes will be suspended or there be a bog flooding so we cant see him. We can curse and plan to kill him in our minds but of course not put that into action because we can be criminally liable for doing that. He says if we survive his course, we will be very thankful to him. He even shared that some of his students who already took and passed the Bar sometimes go to him and tell him that during the Criminal Law part of the Bar, they saw his face in the questionnaire and were transported back to their classes under him. In that way, he said, they remember that he is behind their back and helping them answering the questions. He is that sweet. LOL

He said, after your first year and you pass all your subjects, you get a big A. After second year and you pass all your subjects you get the big T. After third year and you again pass all your subjects, you get another T. After fourth year and you again pass everything, you get a big Y. If you take the Bar and you pass, you get the big period. (He wrote it in the board so it became more dramatic). Try to get your first A after first year.

Other professors for our other subjects were as follows: for Persons and Family Relations, Judge Andres Soriano; for Constitutional Law, Commissioner Wilhelm Soriano of the Human Rights; for Statutory Construction, Atty. Marites Pahate; for the other subject, Logic and Legal Writing and Legal Research we haven't met the professor yet.

I hope all of us in the class, will pass Crim Law after this sem. As for me, I will work hard to get that. Until next time.

Networking

I forgot to tell you about our classmates/bloc mates for the whole year. Yesterday, Kuya AC appointed classroom officers randomly because no one wants to volunteer. So we have beadles for every subject. Beadles are like leaders, no not really leaders but for lack of better term let’s settle with leaders. They are the ones contacted by the professor for announcements and other what-nots. In case there are home works assigned for the class, the beadles will get these from the library and give the whole class copies, well, i don't really know the extent of their humanitarian mission but that was what Kuya AC and the other Kuya told us yesterday.

Good thing I have Audrey with me in Law School. We also have one friend from UP Manila named Cara. While waiting for our prof yesterday, we were talking when:

April: San ka nga pala nakatira?

Cara: Sa gilmore. Isang lrt ride lang.

A: Ah malapit lang pala.

C: Ikaw, san ka nakatira?

A: Dyan sa Altura, kung nakikita mo yung Puregold Sta Mesa, across doon lang.

C: Ah, nadadaanan ko lang pala, kung gusto mo kapag pauwi sabay ka na sa akin kasi minsan sinusundo naman ako.

A: Ha? Sige. (Laugh) Makapag-sige naman ako.

C: Hindi, okay lang talaga kasi di ba may up to 9:30pm tayo, gabi na nun, delikado kaya.

A: Oo nga eh, sige. :)

Cara is nice. Most of our classmates came from UST and San Beda so more likely they will form their own alliances. We have a classmate from UP Cebu and UP Diliman together with a guy from UST. I told Audrey we have to befriend them so we can also form a 6-man alliance because it is difficult to exclude Mr. UST. Admit it, we need every brilliant, nice and fellow UP people by our side. I befriend them because really, we need to create network in Law School. I am a piece of hypocrite if I tell you I just did that because it is a moral thing to do.

The first day

Monday, June 17, 2013 10:31 PM

                Today was the first day in Law School of the 2018 Bar Topnotcher (naks). Originally, our class schedule is 4:30-6:30pm for Statutory Construction and 6:30-8:30 for Persons and Family Relations but we received a text message from Kuya AC informing us that there will be a classroom orientation regardless of our schedule. I didn’t expect that he will be the one facilitating the orientation. Kuya AC is a brod from UPLB EconSoc. He is a member of various organizations in San Beda particularly the Lex Scholaris, something like an Honor Society where only Honor Students are being catered and the International Debate Society, he was even the representative of San Beda in a debate competition sponsored by the ANC and was qualified up to the semi finals against Ateneo. In short, Kuya AC is one of the best Law Students in San Beda and he is now on his 4^th year. I am hoping he be one of the top ten when they get their Bar.

                Going back to my first day, Kuya AC and another Law Student gave us tips on how to survive our first year, well, you cannot really teach a person ways on how to survive but yeah something like that. They even gave us a sample case and used it for a mock recitation where Kuya AC was the mock professor (sorry I don’t know how to address him. haha). Since he knows Audrey and me, we were not called to recite although the sample case was really simple and I’m pretty sure that was very far from the real and actual recitation. We bought three Codals (a compilation of the laws), we have the Revised Penal Code, the Philippine Constitution and the Civil Code for a total of Php 1,318. Yes, that was a lot of money considering these were not even the real reference books, these are just merely Codals.

                The orientation lasted for an hour and a half then we switched classrooms for our Persons class but we left because we were confident that the prof won’t arrive. We are clinging now to the hope that really the professor didn’t arrive because if he did, we were guilty of boycott and punishable by having a grade of 65 or failed for the first recitation and the prof will probably hate us for the rest of our stay in the College.

Ang labo na nga ng buhay ang labo ko pa

Thursday, June 13, 2013 10:30 PM

                Orientation namin kahapon. Masaya naman pero hindi ko pa rin ramdam. Si Kai tinanong sa akin kung kailan ko ba daw matatanggap na sa San Beda na ako.. Hindi ko din alam eh.

Frustration ko ang UP Diliman mula pa nung pumasok ako sa college. Nung hindi ako pumasa, kinuwestyon ko pa kakayahan ko, bakit sila pumasa, ako sa UPLB ‘lang’? Ang problema, hindi naman ako sumubok lumipat. Sinasabi na nila Joey at Kevin noon na tutulungan nila ako lumipat pero hindi ko naman ginawa. Ang labo nga eh, gusto ko pero hindi naman ako gumawa ng paraan. Kaya nung nabigyan ulit ng pagkakataon sana para sa wakas eh makatuntong ng UP Diliman, yung LAE nga, hindi na naman ako pumasa. Paulit ulit na lang.  Pero dahil pwede hanggang tatlong takes sa LAE, may paraan naman para mas lumaki yung chance na pumasa, pwede sana magpahinga muna ako ng isang taon, saka mag review ng tunay tapos mag take ulit, baka nga naman mas malaki na yung chance pumasa kung ganun, pero katulad ng dati, may paraan naman pero hindi ko ginawa.

Kasing labo ng mga desisyon ko ang buhay.

Nagrereklamo ako pero hindi ko naman ginawa lahat ng paraan para makuha yung gusto ko. Siguro nga yung kinatatayuan mo ngayon, deep down, yun rin naman ang gusto mo. Nagkakaron ka lang ng doubts kasi hindi matanggap ng sistema mo na tanggap mo na yung sitwasyon. Ewan, hindi ko alam.

PS: Namove sa 17 ang pasok naming.

Ewan

Tuesday, June 11, 2013 9:18 PM 

                                Tomorrow will be our orientation; I went to San Beda earlier, with my batch mate Audrey who will also be entering San Beda Law and weren’t allowed to enter at first coz Audrey was in a sleeveless blouse, yes ladies and gentlemen, we weren’t allowed to enter coz she was in a sleeveless blouse. Ewan.

 When we were in UP, anyone can enter the campus in any clothing they wish to wear especially in UPLB where fashion exceeds limits. Well, it’s up to you to interpret the last line. Going back, we went there coz we need to get the required shirt which we need to wear tomorrow for the orientation. Did I tell you it costs us 500 pesos and was not even part of the fees we have paid during the enrolment? Ewan.

Speaking of fees, for this sem we have to pay a total of 54k+. In UP, 54k may be good for a year already with dorm fee for more or less seven months.

                We saw a tarpaulin in Beda that welcomes freshmen with the tagline “Heads up because you are now Bedans” and a picture of a guy literally heads up. Ewan.

In UP, I have heard freshmen who laminated their form 5s (assessment form) but during my enrolment in San Beda, enrolment in Law take note, I have seen a guy holding a laminated NSO Certificate of Birth. Ewan.

I am not excited for the orientation tomorrow; I don’t know I don’t feel anything. I am pretty judgmental I know but… I do hope this mentality change soon.

PS: We visited the church inside the school and so far it is the best thing I have seen in Beda.

Monday, June 10, 2013 10:51 PM

                People say that the hardest thing to do is to start, I guess they’re right. This is my first time to post something I wrote in the web for everyone to see, not that everyone is visiting this blog and reading the entries but well, yeah, I’m getting nowhere, I know. I’m a better talker than writer and pardon the writing, I’m no Shakespeare.

                So what do I want? A place where I can express myself, maybe tackle important topics and give my opinions about them, but above all, I want someone to listen to my rants, issues, and everything, as I enter the Law School. Yes, Law School. I am enrolled in the San Beda College of Law for this semester. I haven’t passed the UP Law Aptitude Exam; I was placed in Category B at San Beda, those who still needed to be interviewed before accepted; I don’t have Latin Honors that I could boast everyone around. So, am I ready to enter Law School? Well, I think so, the desire to get something you really want fuels the strength to do everything and push your limits. I just wish that desire is enough…