Solicitor General Jose Anselmo Cadiz on Friday encouraged those who placed in the Top 10 in the 2010 Bar examinations to join government service, even as Malacañang urged all Bar passers to tread on the “straight path." Cadiz said he has already sent letters of invitation to the top 10, led by 2010 Bar topnotcher Cesareo Singzon, an Ateneo de Manila Law School graduate, to join him in the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG). Cadiz said his invitation should also be viewed as “a challenge to the best and brightest young lawyers of Batch 2010 to put their legal training at the disposal of the people." He promised that joining the OSG would be both “fulfilling and professionally rewarding." “The OSG is the only law firm in the Philippines where the lawyers work for the benefit of not just a few, but for the welfare of the public at large," said Cadiz. The Solicitor General serves as the legal counsel of the government, its agencies, instrumentalities, and government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCCs) in litigation or any matter requiring lawyers. The top 10 successful Bar passers are being offered the position of Associate Solicitor III, a post given only to lawyers who either have three years of relevant experience or have excelled in the Bar exams. 'Interested to join govt in the future' Interestingly, four of those who placed in the top 10 were former interns at the OSG, namely:
- No. 6: Krizelle Marie Poblacion (UP);
- No. 7: Maria Christina Ortua (UP);
- No. 8: Johanna Eileen Capones (UP); and
- No. 9: Wiliam Benson Gan (Ateneo).
In an interview with GMA News Online on Friday, seventh placer Ortua expressed her willingness to consider the offer. “I'm interested to join government service in the future," Ortua said. For her part, Krystal Lyn Uy – who is tied with Ortua in seventh place – welcomed the solicitor general's invitation but said she could not immediately commit to it. In an overseas phone interview from The Hague in the Netherlands, Uy said she still plans to finish her contract with her current employer, Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Offices (ACCRALAW). Uy has been in the Netherlands for more than five months now after being accepted as an intern at the International Criminal Court in October last year. But Uy, who obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from ADMU, confessed that government service was what initially convinced her to pursue a career in law. “That is why I am interested in the international community because, cliché as it may sound, I really want to help people," Uy said. The OSG accepts only 60 law students for its legal internship program every year. Among the law students in this year's batch of interns is Raissa Laurel, the sophomore San Beda student who lost her legs due to the Bar exam blast outside the De La Salle University along Taft Avenue in Manila on September 26, 2010.
Palace prods new lawyers into ‘straight path’ In a related development, Malacañang on Friday congratulated those who would soon be the country’s newest lawyers upon their taking the lawyer’s oath; but the palace urged them to thread on the straight path while earning a living.
“Gusto natin ihatid ang ating congratulations sa mga bagong abogado. Congratulations on your hard work," deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said at a press briefing. “As to the new lawyers, we hope you tread the straight and narrow path and still manage to put food on the table," she added. “Treading the straight path"
(tuwid na daan) served as the presidential campaign slogan of President Benigno Aquino III, and which he repeatedly invokes in his speeches and statements as the alternative to the corrupt ways of crooks in the bureaucracy. Only 982 of the 4,847 who took the Bar examinations on September 2010 passed; the passing rate of 20.26 percent is the second lowest in the last 10 years. (See:
SC: 982 pass 2010 Bar exams, Ateneo law graduate tops list)
– MRT/JV, GMA News 
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