Representative Raymond ‘Mong’ Palatino today congratulated the new bar-passers and urged them to take a stand on the SC decision allowing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to appoint the next Supreme Court Chief Justice.

He said that the newest set of bar passers should not allow their profession to be tainted by doubts and controversies.

“Our new young lawyers should uphold the Constitution. They should not allow GMA to control and consolidate the judiciary for her own interests.”

Palatino said that the next chief justice, his or her independence and non-partisanship, will have great implications when Arroyo’s term ends this May.

“The unconstitutionality of the appointment of a midnight chief justice will affect the credibility of the judicial system, something that our new lawyers should not allow to happen,” he said.

The youth solon also appealed to the new lawyers to be ‘patriotic lawyers’. He cited the need for pro-people, pro-masses law practitioners.

“We need new breeds of lawyers committed to the defense and protection of the people especially the poor and the oppressed,” Palatino said. ###