Pen Stabs and Lawsuits

Pen Stabs and Lawsuits "Pen Stabs and Lawsuits" is a space dedicated to writing, lawyering and the passionate love I have for both. Hi! I'm Atty. Adel and this is my FB page. Say what?

Adel Abillar is a lawyer, which he considers his reincarnation and second coming. Before that he toiled for two decades of frustration and embarrassing salary as a writer. He was almost resigned to his fate, ready to throw in the towel but marriage and fatherhood happened too fast jolting him back to his senses. Thank God, or his family would have starved. Becoming a lawyer was the last-ditch stan

d that miraculously showed him the way to survival. To be a lawyer is to be instrumental in making justice into a real thing and more than just a comforting word. With that realization and finding his salvation, he was just too glad to pay his dues for every humbling lesson and every act of kindness he owes the world. He now lives in eager anticipation of the elusive quiet life with Arlene and the kids somewhere amid greeneries and in the company of books and music.

* * *

I used to love that my initials are AA which gives me first crack at almost anything until one day I dreamt being chased by an aardvark. Aardvark... you know, that insecure egotistic anteater whose pictures you always see first in volume one of every encyclopedia. Being always first must be tough on him and developed into a serious anger management problem. I hated my name since then. But I love life though and everything about it that makes people smile and feel good. My 88 year old mother is an extra-terrestrial alien invader who I suspect has hidden antennas to intercept every gossip in the neighborhood, and be the first to start the gossip-fest mornings when the weather is clear despite the fact that she is too old to walk farther than our front gate. The last item on my bucket list that I happily crossed out recently was the one about my wish to deliver a speech during a political rally. I did during the Million Man March. What a proud moment. I am looking at publishing my first book as my next would-be bucket list mission accomplished. God knows where I will get the money or the publisher for that book project. My retirement plan is already laid out for me. I will teach, and if I'm lucky enough not to get insane or demented yet, I would probably write a column. Cut down on my fluid intake so that I wouldn't pee on my pants a lot, when I'm 90. My daughter Sining said she would buy me a fancy race car but I will be happy to settle for a comfortable rocking chair to feel cozy chilling out while waiting for the sunsets in the afternoons or when watching Voltes V reruns when it rains like crazy and you don't get to see the sun. So goes my life. It's been both fun and occasionally embarrassing.

04/10/2025

WHAT HUMANITARIAN REASONS ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

Just when public opinion was starting to look kindly on them, the Senate, voting in favor of the Resolution asking the International Criminal Court (ICC) to approve house arrest for former President Rodrigo Duterte flushed that newfound trustworthiness down the drain. The 15-3 vote (with 2 abstentions) in favor of recommending to the ICC to place Duterte under house arrest instead of keeping him in detention was upheld for humanitarian reasons. In truth, it was a travesty of the worst kind, a slap in the face for victims of extrajudicial killings and their families. You cannot associate Duterte with humanitarian reasons and pretend it’s acceptable despite the thousands who died.

The Duterte administration disrespected humanitarian principles at every turn when he was in power. As president, he demonstrated a strong disdain for human rights and weaponized the so-called anti-drugs campaign to harrass activists and political dissenters who dared to speak about the human rights record of his strongman rule.

Today, the flood control investigation somehow restored public confidence that the Senate as an institution had chosen to remain faithful to its commitment to honest and decent governance. Indeed some of the senators have stepped up in a rare demonstration of courage and integrity, especially those at the forefront of the flood control fund investigation who didn’t hesitate to burn bridges with their own colleagues to expose their wrongdoings. However, the Senate’s shining moment was only as good as it lasted, or until the day that votes were cast overwhelmingly in favor of Duterte’s house arrest. With that, the Senators made known where they stand, and what true colors they wear. If this is the equivalent of a loyalty check, the pro-Duterte Senators staged a mighty show of force and solidarity reminding us that they still have the numbers. At the end of voting, Senators Rissa Hontiveros, Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan were left to their lonesome, as usual.

The crossing of party-lines that beautifuly transpired at rare times in the Senate inspired public perceptions that thankfully the majority had taken the side of the good. In truth however there was nothing more to it beyond perceptions. When all is said and done, the pro-Duterte bloc never changed at all in as much as the serpent no matter how many times it changes skin does not stop being a serpent.

That’s why we should not allow ourselves to get too carried away by false hopes, not to put too much trust on the Duterte enablers. Instead, people should be constantly reminded of how Sen. Panfilo Lacson sponsored the Anti-Terrorism Law that helped legitimize red-tagging and warrantless arrests when Duterte was President. Also, how Sen. Tito Sotto fiercely opposed the ICC investigation on Duterte’s war on drugs behind the government narrative that it undermines Philippine sovereignty. Let us not forget that the Tulfo brothers were staunch Duterte supporters who held government positions under his administration and stayed untouched despite being linked to corruption. Let us not forget how Duterte enablers conspired to jail Sen. Leila de Lima while letting the sacred cows get away because the government wouldn’t act on the Philhealth and Pharmaly scandals.

So after that little dallyance with looking credible and independent, the Senate is back to where it started – a Duterte-dominated sort of unholy alliance – the reason that Vice Pres. Sara Duterte would not be impeached and why she continues to receive her salary despite practically becoming a full-time caregiver to her father at The Hague. It means Inday Sara’s presidential hopes are far from dead, but seemed more like awaiting revival. In fact more and more people now being charged of corruption are riding high on her political comeback remembering how they had it so good during Duterte’s time.

WHAT HUMANITARIAN REASONS ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
October 02, 2025
At home, the computer room
4:30 p.m.

13/09/2025

THE MONSTERS WE CREATE

When this preacher-politician was implicated in the unprecedented graft scandal over missing DPWH funds, he went ballistic during a privilege sp*ech professing his innocence, invoking the word of God and the belief in heaven and hell that he swore his father-preacher inculcated in his mind from a very young age. He was a whirlwind of verbal indignation on the Senate podium, pounding his fists while denouncing the political propaganda that was supposedly unleashed to smear his name by the real perpetrators of the anomalous DPWH projects.

He said the corrupt officials of that department are trying to retaliate after he repeatedly called them out for wasting taxpayers’ money on sub-standard, over-funded and even totally inexistent DPWH projects that couldn’t hold back the floods.

Regardless, the emotional outburst meant nothing more than a bare attempt at denial, as if to say that righteous-indignation and words spoken in the heat of anger would substitute for truth. Indeed, one of the secrets to hold people’s attention, if not to win their trust is in the delivery of the message, as many religious preachers have learned to master to perfection, to the extent of resorting to exaggeration and hysterics in the way they communicate to their flock, as if it was God himself speaking through them. This is how the likes of Apollo Quiboloy managed to thrive and prosper.

However, the Senate is not for religious pontification as this would tend to clash with statesmanship. The privilege sp*ech brought a somewhat circus atmosphere on the Senate floor while it lasted. It was hilarious at some point. The preacher-politician must be hoping that faith would divert public attention from facts, which indeed may work effectively when he spoke to his religious congregation but not this time because he was in the wrong place with the wrong audience in the Senate. When thankfully it ended, he looked more guilty than before he opened his mouth.

It is not the people’s fault if we expected more from a man of God than mere theatrical contrition. When he sensed that Jesus already knew about his betrayal, Judas Iscariot walked away quietly to put himself to death. While this kind of self-punishment is too severe by present-day standards, how about giving up your position or at the very least, going on self-imposed suspension out of delicadeza? Having crossed over from religion to politics and finding fame and fortune, the preacher-politician must demonstrate a full accountability to God and to the people he is sworn to serve. Instead, he co-mingled and apparently collaborated with the thieves when he should know that this should be completely against his morals if he truly is a righteous man.

There is a reason why politics and religion shouldn’t mix because of the monstrosity it might create if we allow that to happen.

In this country where faith is what remains to sustain hope among the poor, they will donate the last of their money to anyone who can point the way to salvation and make them believe that if they cannot escape from poverty now, the poor will get their chance in the afterlife. This is what puts money on the pocket of preachers, money that grows exponentially as the flock grows in number. In time, the religious congregation becomes a political force in its own right when it’s big enough to deliver the winning votes for the preachers themselves or the candidates they endorse.

Meantime, the religious followers who sustain the lifestyle of their leaders with their donations and deliver the votes to them when they venture into politics will have to endure the poverty and the floods, the everyday humiliation of their neglected and exploited existence that came to define what life is all about.

THE MONSTERS WE CREATE
August 12, 2025
At home, 7:00 pm
The computer room

25/08/2025

THE ‘ROB TO RICHES’ STORY?

If there is one good thing to come out of that fairytale treatment of the Discaya’s so-called 'rags to riches' story, it triggered the reexamination by journalists of their professional ethics which while long overdue is such a breath of fresh air. As they say, it’s better late than never.

I refuse to look down on the press and strongly disagree with those who are quick to judge and condemn the whole profession itself as having lost its moral compass. On the contrary, it shows that idealism is alive and well within the ranks with the way that the majority of journalists made it clear they are distancing themselves from two famous colleagues embroiled in the accidental expose on the unprecedented corruption at the DPWH from the revelations of the Discayas.

Save for one veteran news reporter who came to their rescue, the majority of journalists by and large, chose to either keep mum or look from a different angle at the raging controversy, refusing to align with the two interviewers of the Discayas. The silence of the majority speaks volumes. Journalists in this country are extremely protective of their kind at times they can be as vicious as the pack of wolves in going after the enemy if one of them is wronged but not this time and they should be commended.

That most journalists chose to be unsupportive, even silent to some extent, is their loudest indictment of their two colleagues who tried to make heroes and inspiration of the Discayas. More than anything else, the majority chose to be silent not because they condone the misdeeds of two of their colleagues but because out of respect, nobody wants to aggravate their fall from grace. However, it’s too much to expect from the press to rally behind them. The media knew better than to believe that the city mayor who blew the whistle was their enemy and turn against him. He’s recognized as one of few good men fighting to stay clean in the political mud pit.

The same can’t be said of the two interviewers of the Discayas. For all their fame and their money, they do not by any means represent the Philippine press. On the contrary, the honest journalists would be hard-pressed to identify with them after what they did, the shameful story-telling and the attempt to defend it as nothing more than a harmless lifestyle story intended to impart a message and to inspire people that anyone can rise from rags to riches. The problem is no one is willing to be fooled by this explanation especially since the Discayas were proud to say on camera that all those luxury cars, the palatial mansion and millions in the bank were collected when they became employees at DPWH. Is this really rags to riches or ‘rob to riches’?

One could only wonder and feel bad about the what-if’s and the what-could-have-been’s. The Discaya’s revelations could have been the story of a lifetime, something much more meaningful to journalists than a scoop for front-page news but a chance to serve this country which many Filipinos, journalist or not, have died trying to do. Professional intuition and years of practice would enable newshounds to sense the slightest whiff of corruption, drive them to trail the scent to the ends of the earth and bark out loud when the time is right for the whole world to hear the truth. Somehow, the Discayas’ story was sanitized, glamorized and told like an inspirational tale by the very people who betrayed their oath to tell the truth. We don’t know why but there must be ten million reasons that only they would know.

THE ‘ROB TO RICHES’ STORY
August 25, 2025
9:00 p.m.
At home, the computer room

19/07/2025

MY FAMOUS LAST WORDS, HOPEFULLY, ON THE PACMAN

Just in case Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao loses to the Mexican-American Mario Barrios in their welterweight title fight in Las Vegas tomorrow, don’t be so sad. Remember this, your sadness would be even worse if he wins. The Pacman returns to boxing at 46 which is long past retirement-age in the sport and after a four-year inactivity. Once again he’s pushing his luck too far, trying to defy time to extend an already historic career that saw him rise to global stardom, amass wealth by the millions of dollars and parlay his success in the ring into various ventures including those he had no business doing, like becoming an actor, a singer, a religious evangelist, a professional basketball player, and a Senator --- and he definitely isn’t closing his doors to another run for President where he once tried and failed.

He's had his time in the limelight, that’s putting it mildly and it seems he had too much of it to the point of addiction that now he refuses to let go. For this, we are partly to blame, a nation willing to cater to his whims, especially during the height of Manny’s popularity when all that Manny had to do is ask and people would listen and give in to whatever he wants. After all what’s one movie, or one concert, or one vote for Senator, for that matter, if the guy had been reaping honors for his country and stopping communist rebel insurgency every time he fights. For a time he seemed to be our biggest source of hope so blame it on the Pinoy’s warped sense of gratitude, that out of utang na loob, we gladly turned a blind eye to his hopeless incompetence and the disastrous consequences of Manny’s political alliances and decisions.

Manny is part of the reason that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Rodrigo Duterte were able to build a strong political mass-base among the poor and stay in power even while wrecking havoc to the economy with unprecedented levels of corruption and in Duterte’s case, the thousands of disappearances and summary ex*****ons. He used to be in good terms with the likes of Atong Ang and still is, with Chavit Singson.

At the height of his popularity, all that Manny had to say to make his wish come true, no matter how reckless and ill-advised a spoiled brat he was most of the time, is that “It is my passion, and I would like to serve my countrymen” and just like that, as if caught under the spell of the Pied Piper’s call, people would believe and follow him to the ends of the earth without hesitation. Don’t be surprised that Manny is saying the same things now, about passion and the will to serve, which we must have heard already for maybe a million times. Once again he speaks the same rallying cry in typical emotive style, asking for people’s support as he prepares to battle Barrios, while dropping hints of future presidential plans.

No one can deny or take for granted what Manny has done for this country, but to be fair this country had also given him back more than he could reasonably ask for. With too many hangers-on feeding on his success, with his false hopes, his ego and excesses, his sense of entitlement that has grown to borderline delusional, Manny needs the wakeup call, the intense dose of reality that he deserves, the lesson that is long overdue – the cold hard facts and finality of our collective unconditional rejection. All of us telling him in his face that enough is enough. That’s why a victory for Barrios should be a blessing in disguise.

MY FAMOUS LAST WORDS, HOPEFULLY, ON THE PACMAN
July 19, 2025
At home, the computer room
4:30 a.m.

18/07/2025

SKIN AND BONES

Duterte, the former president and now detainee awaiting trial for genocide at The Hague was described by his estranged wife as skin and bones. It may be true and possibly the incarceration contributed to his emaciated state. But nobody among the world leaders is condemning the situation or sending him a get well soon greeting card. To be perceived as supporter of Duterte or to even express sympathy to him is almost an embarrassment. Because Duterte has become a pariah, the anti-thesis to the more enlightened human race that believes in honesty, decency and kindness.

The Dutertes are reduced to begging for pity, but even pity is too much and too difficult to give. I personally don't care if he is skin and bones or ash. Whatever misery he is going through, Duterte brought it upon himself. To sympathize with Duterte is to condone the injustice, the corruption and the brutality that sent tens of thousands of people to their grave, the raiding and looting he institutionalized upon the treasury when he was president, the nation's turning against common decency to make normal of crass behavior and obscenity.

He is attended to by highly-trained doctors while incarcerated at The Hague, provided medical service of the top caliber to make sure the ICC will not themselves commit or be charged of committing a violation on Duterte's human rights. Presumption of innocence is fully accorded the former President that even though confinement is inevitable to prepare him for trial, it is not by any means a punishment. Duterte’s situation as detainee is almost a reward, a piece of heaven compared to the instant death by summary ex*****on that he and the DDS inflicted to the mostly wrongfully accused drug suspects. Now his ex-wife and children would like the whole nation to feel guilty because Duterte has turned skin and bones. They must be sick.

SKIN AND BONES
July 18, 2025, 5:00 am
At home
The computer room

02/07/2025

LIGHTING A CANDLE

I light a candle to put the pain away
to go where time stands still
and where the silence heals.

I light a candle for things undone
for words unspoken
and all the dreams that ended
before the day began.

I light a candle to feel a pulse
in this wordless loneliness
to have the flame for company
than having no one else.

I light a candle as daylight
passed too soon
the warmth of the setting sun
leaving as quickly
as the gentle candle burns.

Today, I light a candle.
For one last time.

29/06/2025

HAPPY TO LOSE

Lawsuits are creatures of irony. Generally, they make me happy in winning them, yet sometimes there are cases I thought I would feel even happier to lose. Lawyers know that the right mindset is not to always aim for the win but to get the best result even under the most hopeless circumstances. That's why it is totally unfair and a little bit misinformed for us to say that for one to be considered a good lawyer he or she should always win the case.

Whether you like it or not some cases are meant to be lost and no amount of hard work or brilliance on the part of the lawyer can save the day. Conversely, there are lawsuits that only require a modicum of effort to find success, and losing would only happen in the extreme case of the lawyer commiting the dumbest mistake of turning sure-win into epic fail. Those are instances that lawyers would feel like hanging themselves when they happen.

To ordinary people, the idea of a lawyer feeling happy to lose might be an inexplicable, a totally out of character phenomenon but honestly, it happens to me all the time. Defending this dirty old crook for acts of impropriety upon a minor, I did everything in my power, short of performing a miracle to score an acquittal. But when eventually I lost the case, which I actually expected, something inside felt good and reassuring. I realize I wouldn't mind losing and in fact, I can't wait to rejoice in secret every time I see justice served.

Believe it or not, losing is in my wish list. I want to know how it feels to lose at Sandiganbayan, to fail at my defense of graft, which although it has never happened, I would be completely at peace to accept if it does. Maybe it would mitigate that guilty feeling over some acquittals that don't sit well with my conscience. I will embrace my fate if justice wills for me to be the happy loser.

Defeat is so important because it teaches humility, and most of all, it could well be the greatest tribute to the lawyer's character, that after having played the unsung role of devil's advocate, a foil and a killjoy, the loser had served his purpose to be instrumental and indispensable to the story of good ultimately winning in the end. In that case, even losers find a way to live happily ever after.

HAPPY TO LOSE
June 29, 2025
At home, the computer room
10:00 am

21/06/2025

To the brilliant radio dj who greeted rizal mabuhay ka on his birthday, remind me when you die to greet you the same way too.

13/06/2025

THE FREEDOM TO BE A FOOL

On the eve of commemoration of the day we first tasted freedom as an independent state, it is the height of irony that we demonstrated instead our collective failure to understand the meaning of freedom and how it works. This country is far from being free from ignorance, prejudice and especially from the twisted morals that abound in high places, in this case, the Philippine Senate.

The majority of the Senators threw away the privilege to be free, choosing instead to stay enslaved by the blind loyalty with which they fought to protect vice president sara duterte from impeachment. The remanding of articles of impeachment from the Senate then back to origin in the house of representatives is yet another demonstration of how ignorance, prejudice and twisted morals would routinely trounce independent thinking when important decisions had to be made.

Senator Bato dela Rosa stood out, renouncing in most dramatic fashion what should be his moment to be truly free, by rather choosing and flaunting his preference for ignorance over freedom. Bato validated what the whole world knew already that he wasn't meant for the Senate or any place of decency for that matter because his destiny was to live and die as the lapdog of the Dutertes.

He chose to be the willing slave to the stupidity his masters planted into his head.

But Senator Bato basking in the role of a national laughingstock was not necessarily the biggest fool out there. The honor should be shared with equal credit by Sen. Francis Escudero, a lawyer, for God's sake, whose actions and incompetence should put the law profession to shame.

In delaying the impeachment, Chiz disgraced himself not by defying the wisdom of the most astute constitutionalists but by completely ignoring common sense. After repeatedly delaying the impeachment, he now insists it will actually expedite the process. What elementary logic has Chiz been utilizing all this time as an honorable senator?

So there. Hilarious. Sickening. And pure rubbish. That's Happy Independence Day for you.

THE FREEDOM TO BE A FOOL
June 13, 2025
At my working desk, 1:00 pm

29/05/2025

THE WRITER THAT NO ONE SEES

As magical as seeing life emerge from its formless beginnings, the discovery of one's natural gifts, be it in the arts or academics must be the most celebrated moment in the infinity of space and time, a moment that is both definitive and existential, the way that perhaps self-discovery has always been meant to be.

It is when a person finds his own path towards transitioning from his once doubtful self, someone that he had been struggling to understand and embrace, into this somewhat totally different person rising to the pinnacle of his potentials to seize control of the possibilities of achieving meaningful things with hard work, including immortality.

Every person has that moment, a turning point of leaving the generic existence that most people are content to have, to become different from the rest, as only a few of us have done. Most of us would intentionally suppress the impulse, pretend it wasn't there. Happy to be average and normal. Only a few would really strive to excel.

Once in my life, I tried to be a teacher, because I knew I live for the moment, the chance to see it unfold... the self-discovery that I always dream to happen to all my students and share the joy of being part of it, to be able to say somehow I inspired my students to rise to their potentials.

I am especially partial to those who show even the barest literary gifts, those who write. That's why I couldn't really call myself a good teacher. Teaching subjects in law and finding myself speaking the language of technocrats, I would always divert, gravitate towards the literary side of everything.

I give points generously to good grammar, and search the faintest sign, the tiniest promise of creative writing in their answers to, say for example, the concepts of demand and default in bilateral obligations, or when explaining holder in due course. I was totally indifferent to the correctness of their answer yet obsessed with their facility to put words together - never mind if their answer is right or wrong.

Believe it or not, I found a few gems, from so many unwilling, so many of those hopelessly hesitant to try for once to be the risk-taker. The writing might be crude but I could sense the promise, if only they just tried hard enough, which I doubt. I even doubt if they even knew that they have the gift at all.

The reason I am writing this is after I accidentally bumped into my student, one of those I thought that can write. Now a dropout, married, and driving a tricycle to support a wife and a kid. I don't blame him. Maybe I should blame life. The desperation that drives and defines it, to the extent that people stop dreaming.

Once upon a time, a teacher lent me a book and that simple gesture inspired me to write and changed my life forever. I wish to be able to do the same thing to someone else, to pay it forward, pass on the kindness.

So I shall keep being a fan and admirer of good writing, my intention is to continue to applaud and cheer. Tell people of the gift they might not be aware they have. Those random notes and stories I read everyday in social media, in the good old-fashioned discarded piece of paper, and if I'm really in luck, that surprise piece of writing a friend would reluctantly show to me seeking my approval, all of these would continue to bring the purest joy into my life.

I can wait and wait and not lose hope to meet someday the writer that no one sees.

THE WRITER THAT NO ONE SEES
May 27, 2025
10:00 pm
At home, the computer room

16/05/2025

SHOUTOUT TO HAPPINESS

Of all the vested rights - those that relate to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - it is the last thing on the list, the pursuit of happiness that comes with an indispensable baggage. Unlike life and liberty that are natural, unconditional incidents of birth, happiness is never guaranteed. Happiness is not for everybody every time. Being born human does not guarantee happiness as a birthright, but only the pursuit of happiness at best.

That’s why history is replete with heartbreaking tales of pursuits that never come to fruition. The world is full of luckless people chasing happiness, like it’s some kind of a life sentence to them that has become inescapable, a drudgery of a pursuit that would only end at the end of life itself. Few tales are more tragic than the heroic sacrifices that don’t beget a single moment of appreciation or the unrequited love left to perish in the cold cruelty of indifference.

The thing about happiness is that not only does it take some difficulties to attain, but it’s also more valuable than the other two. You can have life and liberty all you want, but they don’t mean anything without happiness. Sometimes, life and liberty are relegated as means to an end. We live life the way we want and sacrifice a lot of things just to be free because there’s no other way that we think we can be happy. Happiness is always among the very first in the core of man’s priorities, the deepest among our deepest desires, defining our purpose and destiny.

And yet just like life itself, happiness is such an irony. To get the most out of happiness, sometimes the secret is to keep it pure and simple, rather than complicate the idea of what makes us truly happy. In a sense, there’s so much that we can learn from children, about celebrating happiness with the least expectations, about finding joy and contentment with what we have rather than looking for things that are not around. Happiness is as basic to a child as being home when everyone in the family is present and there is food on the table.

If we can only look at the world with the eyes of the children, the corporate environment that makes us willing to die to get ahead in the race is just a metaphor for the games that we used to play as kids. The success that we crave for is not as sweet as the candy bar we earned for good behavior as a reward in a different time and setting. We should refuse to grow old. The power of a child’s faith should always serve as guiding light and inspiration for us to succeed in the pursuit of happiness.

SHOUTOUT TO HAPPINESS
May 16, 2025, 3:00 pm
At my work desk

10/05/2025

LAWYERS AS MERCENARIES

If voting were the measure of good citizenship, then I am a delinquent citizen, having absconded from my obligation to vote since joining the Philippine Bar. Relegated to the watchman’s role instead, I find myself thrown to far-off places almost every election day, to represent candidates at various positions, candidates who feel the need for a lawyer to protect them from cheating at the polls, and more importantly, with abundant war fund to make sure that they can afford that protection.

Most of the time, election duties pose a moral dilemma for lawyers, myself included, if we were to choose to be honest about it. You cast away your personal philosophies, block all negative thoughts of possibly supporting the wrong candidate, and to stop asking up to what extent you should remain loyal if you sense shenanigans right in your own camp. Often, lawyers fall into the mindset of the mercenaries, just do whatever it takes to accomplish what you are being paid to do and don’t give a damn about anything else.

Never mind that the whole system of running an election is itself smeared by fraud, by coercion, corruption and violence, the grand deception of the masses, the sellout of genuine patriotic feelings in exchange for the preservation of powerful dynasties, whose hands pull the strings to steer elections to preordained results while the nation suffers. A sustained suffering from hunger and hopelessness has been known to divest men of their drive for change and idealism. Suffering breeds submissiveness.

There will be no questioning the system much less protesting the injustice when hungry stomachs prevent the mind from feeling the urge to think. Maybe it has already reached the point where the masses become content to be fed the momentary nourishment against hunger. For this, they will believe anything. They will make it their lifetime of indebtedness the voting into office of corrupt and incompetent men. Have you ever wondered why the same crooks keep winning despite their non-performance once enshrined into public office, despite the money they stole from the taxpayer?

To be part of the whole great experience of suffrage is to have your own story to tell. From years of experience, I have compiled not just one or two but too many of them. But the one story that stands out, the one that bothers me to this day was the first two hours after the closing of polling centers on May 9, 2022. For the first time ever, the automated counting surged to supersonic sp*ed giving the eventual winner a 20-million vote lead that up to now no one knows and no one can explain where did it come from. Two days from now, the whole ritual of a nation casting their ballots will happen again and history may yet repeat itself.

LAWYERS AS MERCENARIES
May 10, 2025, 11:00 pm
At home, the computer room

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