MANILA, Philippines -- Chief Justice Renato C. Corona rallied the country’s more than 40,000 lawyers to prevent corruption from establishing its roots in the legal community.

“Educating our own ranks on the evil of corruption and recognizing those who personify the values of honesty and competence will strengthen the moral fiber of our profession and our nation as a whole,” Corona said.

The Chief Justice was guest speaker during the 13th national convention of lawyers of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) at the Subic Bay Convention Center. The convention theme was “Living up to the Standards of Integrity and Competence in the Legal Profession.”

He thanked the IBP for inviting him to address the country’s lawyers “at this time when burning issues, presently faced not just by the bar and the bench but also by the nation as a whole, call for nothing but the most united and concerted action on our part as allies of truth and justice and as supreme defenders of the rule of law.”

According to the Chief Justice, the lawyers as officers of the court should not only adhere to the law and the Constitution “but also champion individual rights, especially of the poor and the weak.”

He stressed that since lawyering is a public service more than anything else, “any act of justice we do exalts and magnifies our profession in the eyes of our people and in their trust and confidence in our democratic way of life.”

The IBP, he said, was set up almost four decades ago “to elevate the standards of the legal profession, improve the administration of justice and enable the bar to discharge its public responsibility more effectively.”

The values of integrity and competence, he said, were the ideals that pushed the Supreme Court to integrate the members of the law profession into a national body.

The Chief Justice reminded IBP members of their oath the first time they became lawyers – “to do no falsehood nor consent to the doing of any in court... not to delay any man for money or malice....”

“Sadly, however, the years have hardened some of us in heart and in mind. Certain realities in legal practice can sometimes instill harsh and painful lessons and can even make it difficult to stay true to our oath as lawyers,” he lamented.

“Let us therefore go back in time and remind ourselves again of how we felt when we first stood before the justices of the Supreme Court years ago to recite that time-honored oath. All we need to do is to believe in ourselves and our God-given ability to live up to the greatness and nobility of our chosen profession,” he said.