The first lady Chief Justice of the Philippines, Ma. Lourdes Sereno, addressed the successful barristers and encouraged them to reverse the negative public view of lawyers. An excerpt of CJ Sereno's speech is quoted below:
"Do not be discouraged by the fact that system changes need time to design, to start, to take root, to monitor and refine before anyone can claim success. Do not let the slowness of change in the system delay your own individual ways of holding yourselves accountable to your oath of office. Remember that once you take the crooked path, its slippery snares will make it difficult for you to go back to the right one. So, do not ever take the first step to commit an unethical, immoral or illegal conduct. Stand your ground and do what is right - for your sake, for the sake of your batch mates, and for the sake of your generation and future generations.
"On my part, I am here, together with my colleagues, to always encourage you, guide you with whatever measure we can provide and demonstrate to you by our own individual lives the meaning of courage and integrity. We will create systems by which you can reach out to us in the Supreme Court and we in turn can reach out to you. We need mutual encouragement in the path to do good, to build our country, and redeem our profession from the ugly caricature of lawyers that our fellowmen have drawn."CJ Sereno encouraged the new lawyers to act with nobility and accountability. She further stressed that the legal profession keep to its code of ethics and that though the Supreme Court is the leader for change, the body needs the whole legal profession to support it.
