Augustinian Legal Aid Bureau - ALAB

Augustinian Legal Aid Bureau - ALAB Bringing justice closer to people guided by the Augustinian values of Caritas (Love), Unitas (Unity), and Veritas (Truth). Greetings! Welcome to our community.

We are ALAB or the Augustinian Legal Aid Bureau. We are part of the University of San Agustin College of Law and we are an organization dedicated to serving our brothers and sisters in need of pro bono legal representation and advice, at the same time helping and mentoring our law student practitioners to an effective and efficient limited practice of law. ALAB is a a product of clinical legal edu

cation program or CLEP. CLEP integration is a new introduction to the existing JD curriculum although some parts of it have already been existing as separate subjects in the curriculum i.e. practice court, legal forms, arbitration and moot court. The integration takes the form of consolidation as well as addition of other modes like externships and the operation of a legal clinic. The establishment of the two latter modes will entail more resources and but both additional modes are welcome and ideal not only for compliance but for improvement of legal education. ALAB is indeed a realization of our latter goal. As we build this community, follow along with us for information, knowledge, interaction, dialogue and symbiosis. We welcome your presence here and together ALAB can grow to achieving its full potential of being a relevant and needed organization in our society today. See you soon! Atty. Fitz Macalalag
CLEP Director

✨ A Breakthrough Year for ALAB: Advancing Clinical Legal Education in 2026 ✨As we enter 2026, the Augustinian Legal Aid ...
28/01/2026

✨ A Breakthrough Year for ALAB: Advancing Clinical Legal Education in 2026 ✨

As we enter 2026, the Augustinian Legal Aid Bureau (ALAB) of the University of San Agustin – College of Law proudly marks a major milestone in its continuing mission to deliver clinical legal education (CLEP) that is faithful to Supreme Court rules and responsive to the needs of society.

This year, ALAB formally strengthened its institutional partnerships through the ex*****on of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Public Attorney’s Office – Region VI, establishing a structured, ethical, and academically grounded referral system for public interest cases. This partnership ensures that legal assistance reaches those who need it most—while remaining fully compliant with Rule 138-A of the Rules of Court and relevant Supreme Court issuances on clinical legal education.

📌 What this means for the public:
• Public interest cases may now be referred through a clear, transparent, and accountable process
• All cases are carefully evaluated to ensure ethical compliance and proper supervision
• Representation is handled within an academic legal clinic, with ALAB as counsel of record

📌 What this means for our students:
• Law students gain real-world, supervised legal experience
• Training emphasizes professional responsibility, competence, and service
• Students are prepared to become practice-ready, socially responsible, and values-driven Augustinian lawyers

Under the MOA, students participate only under close faculty supervision, ensuring that learning is rigorous, ethical, and aligned with the standards of the legal profession. More importantly, this model affirms that legal education and public service can—and must—go hand in hand.

This milestone reflects ALAB’s commitment not only to compliance, but to formation: forming lawyers who are competent in practice, grounded in ethics, and deeply committed to justice and the common good.

Special thanks and our highest respect to Hon. Atty. Jose Edmund E. Guillen, Regional Public Attorney of PAO–Region VI, whose leadership, openness, and principled support made this partnership possible. It is both an honor and a privilege for ALAB to work alongside an institution and a public servant who exemplify integrity, service, and fidelity to the rule of law. Your confidence in clinical legal education as a means of developing competent, ethical, and socially responsive future lawyers affirms the shared commitment of PAO and the University of San Agustin College of Law to justice, mentorship, and public service.

Here’s to a stronger 2026—for our students, for the profession, and for the communities we serve. ⚖️💙

⸻✨ SUCCESSFUL KAMALAYAN LEGAL CLINIC & FORUM ✨The University of San Agustin – College of Law, through the Augustinian Le...
28/01/2026

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✨ SUCCESSFUL KAMALAYAN LEGAL CLINIC & FORUM ✨

The University of San Agustin – College of Law, through the Augustinian Legal Aid Bureau (ALAB), successfully conducted another installment of KAMALAYAN Legal Clinic & Forum at Barangay Jereos, La Paz, Iloilo City.

The activity provided free legal consultation and general legal advice to residents on common barangay and community concerns, fostering dialogue, awareness, and access to justice at the grassroots level. The strong turnout and active participation of the community affirm the continuing need for legal education and on-the-ground legal assistance.

We extend our sincere gratitude to Hon. Atty. Sed Cabaluna, Councilor of Iloilo City, for his invaluable support and partnership, which greatly contributed to the success of this activity. Our thanks as well to the Barangay Jereos officials, the Lupon Tagapamayapa, community leaders, and residents for their warm welcome and cooperation.

We also commend our ALAB faculty members, volunteer lawyers, and law student practitioners for their dedication and service in bringing the law closer to the people.

Together, we continue to strengthen communities through legal awareness, service, and solidarity. ⚖️💙

🌟 KAMALAYAN: Special Session on the Welfare of Children in Street Situations 🌟November 24, 2025 | Iloilo City HallYester...
25/11/2025

🌟 KAMALAYAN: Special Session on the Welfare of Children in Street Situations 🌟
November 24, 2025 | Iloilo City Hall

Yesterday’s multi-sectoral forum and workshop was a resounding success! 🎉

Atty Sedfrey Cabaluna with ALAB brought together leaders and advocates from the City Government, CSWDO, CORE Philippines, CHR, the University of San Agustin College of Law, and various community partners to strengthen our shared commitment to protecting children in street situations.

Throughout the afternoon, participants engaged in:

🟦 Input and Data Presentations on CISS, child protection laws, and intervention practices
🟩 Sectoral Breakout Workshops using the “Continue, Stop, Begin” method to identify pressing issues and formulate actionable recommendations
🟧 Reactor Panel & Synthesis with government agencies responding to outputs
🟪 Planning of Next Steps, including the formation of a Monitoring Group for sustained coordination

The energy in the room—from students, social workers, partner organizations, and community champions—reflected our collective dedication to building systems that are compassionate, data-driven, and responsive to the needs of vulnerable children.

A huge thank you to all participants, organizers, and volunteers from KAMALAYAN, City Hall partners, and the University of San Agustin College of Law for making this session meaningful and impactful. 🙌

Together, we continue the work of empowering communities, fostering awareness, and ensuring that every child is seen, heard, and protected. 💙❤️

21/10/2025

📣 KAMALAYAN Legal Clinic & Forum – Jereos, La Paz 6th Edition

KAMALAYAN of Councilor Atty. Sed Cabaluna and the University of San Agustin – College of Law, through the Augustinian Legal Aid Bureau (ALAB), continues its community-based legal service and education series with the next KAMALAYAN Legal Awareness and Legal Aid Session.

🗓 When: Friday, October 24, 2025 – 9:00 AM
📍 Where: Jereos Covered Gym, La Paz, Iloilo City

✨ Theme: Empowering Communities through Legal Awareness

This outreach activity will offer free legal advice and consultation on common barangay and community concerns — including family, property, labor, and other day-to-day legal issues faced by residents.

👩‍⚖️ Faculty members, volunteer lawyers, and law student practitioners from the University of San Agustin College of Law will be on site to provide guidance, answer questions, and assist residents in understanding their rights and remedies under the law.

Together, let us continue bridging the gap between the law and the people. ⚖️💙

06/10/2025

On Moral Leadership

The Supreme Court’s decision in Araullo v. Aquino III (G.R. No. 209287, July 1, 2014) remains one of the enduring guideposts for modern governance. It invalidated the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), not because fiscal agility is wrong, but because no amount of efficiency can justify the abandonment of constitutional principles. The ruling reminded us that the President already possesses the powers necessary to lead decisively and to fight corruption—if only he would use them fully, transparently, and with moral courage.

Foremost among these powers are the line-item veto and the power of impoundment.

Under Article VI, Section 27(2) of the 1987 Constitution, the line-item veto empowers the President to strike out specific items in the General Appropriations Act that are wasteful, corrupt, or vague. This power was designed to counteract the age-old problem of “pork barrel” politics—appropriations disguised as public service but serving only the interests of the corrupt (read contractors). Each year, the national budget is padded with billions under the guise of local infrastructure, assistance funds, or “special projects.” A President with resolve can eliminate these through the veto pen, protecting public money even before it is spent.

The power of impoundment, though unwritten, flows from the President’s duty under Article VII, Section 17 to “faithfully execute the laws.” As the Supreme Court observed in Araullo, the Executive may withhold or suspend the release of funds to prevent misuse, waste, or violation of law. Properly applied, this discretion enables the President to serve as the Republic’s final guardian of fiscal integrity—to stop corruption not after the fact, but just before it begins.

Unfortunately, the confusion and disillusionment that many citizens feel today actually stem from a President who hesitates to lead. A weak and half-hearted presidency—one that refuses to veto the excesses of Congress, that compromises with corruption for the sake of political peace—inevitably breeds public frustration. When leadership wavers, the people’s faith in democratic institutions falters. Governance becomes reactive, not visionary; symbolic, not substantive. The Constitution gives the Chief Executive enough lawful weapons to act, but the will to use them must come from a different place.

This leadership vacuum has, in turn, emboldened those who now call for snap elections (moronic as it sounds) as a supposed remedy. Yet such calls are perilous and profoundly shortsighted. They echo the volatile atmosphere that once surrounded the declaration of Martial Law in 1972, when political fatigue and public unrest became the excuse for authoritarian power. Our democracy, imperfect as it is, cannot afford another cycle of instability. The lesson of history is clear: the erosion of leadership must never be cured by the erosion of institutions.

The President does not need emergency powers, nor should he heed the noise of premature political upheaval. What he needs is conviction—to use the powers already given by the Constitution: to veto corruption, to impound abuse, and to restore discipline in the use of public funds. These are not mere administrative tools; they are instruments of moral leadership.

23/09/2025

📣 KAMALAYAN Legal Clinic & Forum

The University of San Agustin – College of Law, through the Augustinian Legal Aid Bureau (ALAB), in partnership with the Office of Atty. Sed Cabaluna and the Iloilo City Government, invites everyone to the 5th installment of KAMALAYAN, our continuing Legal Awareness and Legal Aid Series.

🗓 When: Monday, September 29, 2025 – 9:00 AM
📍 Where: Penthouse 1 (8th Floor), Iloilo City Hall

✨ Theme: Protecting Children's Rights, Empowering Communities
This session will highlight pressing issues on:
✔️ R.A. 9344 – Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act (Children in Conflict with the Law and Children at Risk)
✔️ R.A. 10627 – Anti-Bullying Act of 2013
✔️ Access to justice for children's families and communities

👩‍⚖️ Members of the University of San Agustin College of Law Faculty, IBP Iloilo Chapter, LSP1s of the College of Law, will join as volunteer lawyers and facilitators, ensuring that grassroots communities have direct access to meaningful legal education and advice.

Together, let us continue bridging the gap between law and the people. 💡⚖️

21/09/2025

✨On Lawyers (and would -be lawyers) and the Floods of Corruption ✨

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There is a painful truth that needs to be said about the legal profession: lawyers are not insulated from the moral consequences of the choices they make. Our profession is not a shield against accountability. Every case we take, every client we defend, and every maneuver we devise in the name of advocacy leaves a mark not only on our reputation but on the fabric of society.

Too often, lawyers console themselves with the notion that “everyone deserves a defense,” forgetting that in the realities of practice, many of us do not merely defend the accused but actively abet the machinery of corruption. History shows that when government plunderers needed legal armor, it was lawyers who gladly forged it. Some of the biggest thieves of our nation’s coffers wore not only barongs and suits but also enjoyed the steady counsel of brilliant attorneys who knew precisely how to twist the law to excuse the inexcusable.

This complicity is not accidental. Lawyers have sat in smoke-filled rooms where government contracts were manipulated, laws were interpreted for private interest, and investigations were neutralized. Too many have crossed from mere defenders to co-conspirators—becoming, in effect, plunderers themselves. Currently, DPWH has fifty (50) lawyers in its legal service, almost half of the legislators in Congress are lawyers, and the non-lawyers have at least 5 lawyers in their legislative staff. Escudero is a lawyer, Sara Duterte is a lawyer. Ferdinand Marcos Sr., was a lawyer, a bar topnotcher at that.

The Bible warns of the Great Flood, when the earth was drowned because “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagining of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (GENESIS 6:5, KJV21). That deluge was not only water—it was judgment. Today, we are living through another kind of flood: the drowning of institutions in graft, the inundation of truth by technicalities, and the submergence of justice under the weight of influence, peddling, lobbyism, money and power. And once again, lawyers are at the ark’s door—some standing with Noah in the right, others clinging to the instruments of wickedness that hastened destruction.

The legal profession must ask: are we guardians of justice, or mercenaries of the corrupt? If the law is a noble calling, then to use it as a tool of plunder is to betray not only our oath but our people. The floodwaters of corruption will not spare us; history will not acquit us.

For in the end, lawyers are not judged only by their brilliance, but by the choices they make—and whether those choices built an ark of justice, or helped unleash the flood.

FP MACALALAG
CLINIC DIRECTOR
ALAB UNIV. OF SAN AGUSTIN COLLEGE OF LAW

💡 Let us continue to reflect, engage, make change and take action together.

15/09/2025

🎉 CONGRATULATIONS, BARTAKERS AND WOULD BE LAWYERS! 🎉

From the classroom to the EXAMINATION ROOM and eventually to the courtroom—the journey will soon be complete. We proudly celebrate our Augustinian Bar takers who have reached this milestone with excellence, courage, and faith. 🏛️⚖️❤️

The University of San Agustin - College of Law continues to prove that it is not only capable of producing bar exam passers, but also practice-ready advocates—thanks to our dynamic legal aid arm, the Augustinian Legal Aid Bureau (ALAB).

Through ALAB, our students are trained not just to think like lawyers but to serve like true Augustinians—with compassion, purpose, and a commitment to justice.

🌟 We salute your success.
📚 We honor your preparation.
💼 We support your journey ahead.

Best of luck, (would be) Attorneys! Claim it now!

The bar is just the beginning. 🇵🇭⚖️









📸 See below from the celebration yesterday!

⸻📸 LOOK: SUCCESSFUL CONDUCT OF THE 4TH KAMALAYAN LEGAL CLINIC & FORUM IN BARANGAY INGORE!📍 September 14, 2025 | Brgy. In...
15/09/2025

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📸 LOOK: SUCCESSFUL CONDUCT OF THE 4TH KAMALAYAN LEGAL CLINIC & FORUM IN BARANGAY INGORE!

📍 September 14, 2025 | Brgy. Ingore, Iloilo City

The Augustinian Legal Aid Bureau (ALAB), in partnership with the Office of Councilor Sedfrey Cabaluna and Barangay Ingore, proudly held the 4th KAMALAYAN Legal Clinic and Legal Awareness Forum, bringing together lawyers, law student practitioners, social workers, and residents in a half-day event filled with legal empowerment, dialogue, and community solidarity.

💬 The theme for this leg was:
“Barangay Justice and Legal Empowerment: Knowing Our Rights and Accessing Legal Remedies”

⚖️ Highlights of the event include:
✅ Free one-on-one legal consultations for over 80 residents
✅ Lectures on barangay justice mechanisms, RA 9344 (Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act), and rights of women and children
✅ Sectoral engagement with youth, mothers, senior citizens, and out-of-school residents
✅ Distribution of legal education pamphlets in Hiligaynon and Tagalog

💡 Residents of Barangay Ingore actively engaged with the law through focused discussions, storytelling, and situation-based questions—showing the power of accessible legal knowledge in transforming communities.

🤝 We are grateful to our partners from the Office of Atty. Sed Cabaluna, USA Law Student Practitioners, and the dedicated volunteers who shared their time and expertise to make this possible.

💛 “Ang hustisya para sa tanan.”

📷 See highlights below! And watch out for our fifth sched!







07/09/2025

📣 ANNOUNCEMENT | 4th KAMALAYAN LEGAL CLINIC & FORUM

🗓️ September 14, 2025 (Sunday)
🕘 9:00 AM – 12:00 NN
📍 Brgy. Ingore, Iloilo City

The Augustinian Legal Aid Bureau (ALAB), and KAMALAYAN OF ATTY SEDFREY CABALUNA in partnership with the Barangay Ingore, proudly brings you the 4th installment of the KAMALAYAN Legal Clinic and Legal Awareness Series!

💬 Theme:
“Barangay Legal Empowerment: Knowing Our Rights and Accessing Legal Remedies”

This community-based legal outreach aims to provide:
✅ Free legal consultation for residents
✅ Legal education on family and barangay justice concerns

👥 Special thanks to our dedicated volunteer lawyers, faculty, and law students for making this initiative possible.

We invite the residents of Barangay Ingore and neighboring areas to participate in this meaningful forum on access to justice and legal empowerment at the grassroots.

📝 Walk-in consultations welcome.
📷 See you on-site!






✅ SUCCESSFULLY CONDUCTED: KAMALAYAN x ALAB’s 3RD ACTIVITY📍 Iloilo City National High School Library🗓 September 5, 2025 (...
06/09/2025

✅ SUCCESSFULLY CONDUCTED: KAMALAYAN x ALAB’s 3RD ACTIVITY

📍 Iloilo City National High School Library
🗓 September 5, 2025 (Friday)
⏰ 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM

The Law Student Practitioners (LSPS), Level I of the Augustinian Legal Aid Bureau (ALAB), in collaboration with the Office of Councilor Atty. Sedfrey Cabaluna, successfully held the 3rd leg of the KAMALAYAN Legal Awareness Legal Clinic and Forum.

🎓 Theme:
“Protecting the Future: Legal Rights and Social Interventions for Children in Conflict with the Law (CICL) and Children at Risk (CAR)”

This session engaged senior high school students and their parents in a meaningful discussion on the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act, as amended, highlighting the importance of protecting and empowering vulnerable youth.

📌 What participants gained:

✅ Legal orientation on CICL and CAR frameworks
✅ Real-life applications of social and legal interventions
✅ Consultations and open forum with volunteer lawyers, social workers, and law student practitioners (LSPs)

🤝 We extend our heartfelt thanks to our partners, student-participants, teachers, and parents whose active involvement made this advocacy a true success. Together, we continue to build a better-informed, youth-protective community.

📷 See highlights of the activity below!





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