Land and legal aid: the effectiveness and efficiency of the Philippine public attorney's office in providing pro bono legal assistance in land cases

Abstract

"Those who have less in life should have more in law." (Magsaysay, 1950s). As the former president's slogan goes, it is and should always be the primary battlecry of a country's judicial system to be an arena of equality. The law is where no race, religion, or social class, among others, is favored upon. It is the very same system that can and will most effectively bring the marginalized, such as peasants, the justice and equal footing in society that they deserve. The Philippine Public Attorney's Office was mandated into law with the vision of being a government institution that provides pro bono legal assistance to indigent Filipinos. It has been perceived as one of the avenues in which the marginalized can finally have access to justice. However, in a highly agricultural country such as the Philippines, we can see how the peasant sector still has difficulty in achieving genuine agrarian reform. This study aims to analyze the said office's effectivity in being able to provide quality and accessible legal assistance to the sector which comprises the majority of the Philippine population: the peasantry.