The Legal Education Board (LEB) and University of the Philippines (UP) Law Center organized the State of Philippine Legal Education: A Focus Group Discussion (FGD) Southern Mindanao Leg, in partnership with the University of Southeastern Philippines (USeP) School of Law (SoL) held at USeP Hostel, Dining Hall on November 19, 2019.
Atty. Jesus A. Villardo III, Dean of USeP’s School of Law, delivered the opening remarks.
In his message, he introduced the activity to the participants.
“They’re already doing this all over the country. This is very momentous and a turning point to Legal Profession. Some of the Law Schools are trying now to contextualize Legal Education in that sense, trying to understand where we’re coming from so that future lawyers, when they become lawyers, will pass the bar.”
He also stated that the challenge for Law Students today is for them to not just be congregating in city centers but for them to actually go back to their communities.
Attorney Tanya Lat, Representative of UP Law Center, further discussed the activity.
“This time we’re doing another series of FGD’s to complement the earlier study and this time we’re doing more in depth consultation with multi-sectoral stakeholders and Law students.”
The participants of this event are Deans, Faculty, Staff and Law Students and Graduates from USeP, Rizal Memorial College (RMC), Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU), University of Mindanao (UM), Jose Maria College (JMC) and Saint Mary’s College (SMC) Tagum.
Organizers have felt that the voice of the people who are not affiliated with legal education should also be heard.
With that, there are also participants from the Karapatan Alliance, Talikala Inc., National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), Luna Legal Review Center, 1015 Inc., Kabataan Partylist, College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) and other Business, Labor, Economic, Government and Private Sector Employees.
The Focus Group Discussions talks about various social issues and concerns occurring in the society. The feedbacks are needed so that the Legal Education would improve. If Legal Education is improved, needs will be serve better.
