Moving On

Today was my last day as an employee of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. I worked there, to the day, for seventeen months, a personal record. I had originally planned to stay until Chief Justice Panganiban's retirement in December, but when the newest wave of bar passers was announced I spotted an opportunity to grab work at a law firm, and so I decided to fast track my plans a little bit. The plan was to hand my resume out, without a word to anyone at work, and if it didn't work out, I could always just return to the status quo. If it did, then I'd be out of there in the statutory 30 days. The latter just so happened to come true.

I couldn't have picked a better time to leave the Court; I'm leaving on a high, at a time when the institution's credibility has been restored by three successive decisions upholding the primacy of civil liberties and clipping the wings of an administration that seems to aspire towards authoritarianism or some permutation thereof. I'm leaving without intrigues in my wake, without bad blood between me and anyone in the office, and ultimately, without any regrets. In other words, I'm quitting while I'm ahead, and it feels great.

There's something really special about having done a "tour of duty" over there on Padre Faura, and it's more than just researching and assisting in the preparation of decisions. It's more than going to work every day knowing that the hopes of many of the country's lawyers and their clients hinges on how we decide their cases. It's about being part of history as it is made. This came home with dramatic effect on my penultimate week, which I spent in Baguio, when they released the decision regarding Presidential Proclamation No. 1017, which bore an eerie resemblance to Presidential Decree No. 1081, which declared Martial Law, over 34 years ago.

It doesn't matter that I had nothing to do with preparing momentous decisions like the three successive ones that came out of Baguio this past month. It's enough for me that I was there and that I was working in the same office. It's not about the ability to take credit for anything, it's about knowing one was there to witness something special. I now have the vaguest idea of how people felt when they watched the Berlin Wall come down. Well, maybe not, but the point is I know now how special it feels to be in the right place at the right time.

That time has now passed, and it feels only right to move on along with it, but it's been one HECK of a ride.

Onward and upward to new challenges and milestones!