THE IMPLEMENTATION of the Community Legal Aid Service (CLAS) at the chapter level has been a welcome development the past two years. It has created a wider network of legal aiders answering the needs of the everincreasing number of legal aid clients of the chapter.
Our CLAS activities beyond the court room (barangay, school, and mall-based free legal aid; jail decongestion activities, legal education lectures and outreach activities) have also helped our CLAS volunteers experience a different side of lawyering, which is among the trademarks of IBP Pampanga.
Our activities in 2018 were truly given a more “youthful” vibe with the support of our pioneer CLAS lawyers. The admission in 2019 of new CLAS lawyers was met with so much enthusiasm considering the positive feedback from our previous CLAS volunteers.
We are saddened by abrupt suspension of the CLAS at a time when its potential as a necessary compliment of the IBP legal aid program is slowly being realized. As obedient soldiers of the law profession, we abide by the decision arrived at by the Supreme Court.
Our heartfelt gratitude to our CLAS lawyers for the hours of service they have selflessly given. We can never thank you enough. We hope that, even in a short span of time, we have instilled in you that those who have less in life should have more in law.
We can only hope that the IBP Pampanga CLAS lawyers and the other CLAS volunteers across the country put to their hearts their love for service to the needy and continue as legal aid volunteers of IBP Pampanga and their respective chapters, with the realization that: Lawyering is indeed a noble profession but it is at its noblest if done even when it is no longer mandatory.
(Statement of IBP Pampanga on the suspension of CLAS)
