CONCEPT NOTE

URIOS LEGAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (ULAP)

(The Legal Assistance Program of the FSUU College of Law)

1. OVERVIEW

Increasing the awareness of the members of the legal profession regarding

the needs of the poor, deprived, and oppressed sectors of society is one of
the objectives of legal education in the Philippines1 and the College of Law of
Father Saturnino Urios University. To attain this objective, the College of Law
has included in its five-year development plan (2012-2017) the
institutionalization of its legal assistance program that will provide its law
students the opportunity to be aware of the situation of the poor, deprived,
and oppressed sectors, as well as allow the law students to extend the
needed legal assistance to these sectors.

The College of Law has been extending legal assistance on a by demand

basis. Since 2002, it has been serving some of the legal concerns of the
Diocese of Butuan, primarily, through the Social Action Center for Justice and
Peace. Its students have produced legal documents in aid of shaping the local
environmental governance policies in coordination with the Father Saturnino
Urios University Policy Center, Inc.. It laso has a Memorandum of Agreement
for legal internship with the Public Attorney's Office, Caraga Regional Office.
The students involved in this legal assistance program are the fourth year
students. Although, there were instances wherein students in Statutory
Construction (first year) and Natural Resources and Environmental Law
(second year) were involved.

The FSUU envisions a community of men and women committed to work for
the wholeness of society. Its vision contemplates a society where all members,
especially the marginalized sectors, have attained the fullness of their well-
being. The vision necessarily includes protection of the rights and welfare of
one of the vulnerable sectors of the community the indigenous peoples (IP).
In this context, the FSUU, as an academe, is deemed as a duty bearer in the

1 Paragraph 2(a), Section 7, Article II of the LEM MEMORANDUM ORDER NO. 1 - Policies
and Standards of Legal Education and Manual of Regulations for Law Schools.
 field of education, having an important role in educating the people to value
the rights of all members of society.

The institutionalization of its legal assistance program under the Urios Legal
Assistance Program (ULAP) dovetails with the two missions of the university,
which are:

to provide a balanced program of spiritual formation, educational

development, research undertakings, and community involvement; and

to empower all as catalysts for social transformation and development.

The ULAP will serve as the laboratory for the students in the following
required subjects in FSUUs law curriculum:

Legal Research (First Year)

Agrarian Law and Social Legislation (Second Year)

Human Rights Law (Second Year)

Natural Resources and Environmental Law (Second Year)

Land Titles and Deeds (Second Year)

Legal Forms (Third Year)

Legal Counseling and Social Responsibility (Fourth Year)

Practice Court I (Fourth Year)

Practice Court II (Fourth Year)2

The ULAP hopes to advance the rights and interests of the IP by facilitating
the interface of indigenous processes of dispute resolution with the formal
legal processes established under the legal system. This strategy is crucial
because the IP have their own unique customary laws distinct from other
formal laws, and which require indigenous practices of settling disputes.

In order to ensure the full protection of the IP rights and interests, it is

essential that ULAP will consider customary laws and practices of the IP in
resolving conflicts. However, traditional or formal legal processes will not be

2 2012-2013 Law Curriculum of the College of Law of Father Saturnino Urios University
 totally disregarded by the ULAP since these can also be used hand in hand
with indigenous processes to fully provide for the best interest of the IP.

The purpose of the ULAP is to provide legal assistance to marginalized

sectors that have less access to legal services, and at the same time, develop
the skills of FSUU law students for actual legal practice.

2. PROGRAM COMPONENTS

To establish the ULAP, the FSUU and its partner institutions will focus on
setting-up and organizing the legal assistance office as an initial step. The first
batch of interns will participate in preparing the manual of operations of the
ULAP, including the assessment of the clients to be covered. This initial task
is likened to that of establishing an actual law office or firm which will be a
good learning experience for the College of Law and the students.

The ULAP comprises three stages which will complement with the capacity of
the interns depending on their year level in law school. As each student
proceeds to the next year level, his or her involvement in the LAP will also
progress to the next stage.

The first stage will focus on developing the students capacity to

provide paralegal and technical support. This stage will involve the 1st
and 2nd year law students.

The second stage will aim at developing the students skill in legal
research and investigation. The students will be immersed in the
partner communities and sectors to deepen their knowledge of the
situations and conflicts. This stage will involve the 3rd year law
students.

The third stage is the practicum that will train the students in actual
legal practice by allowing them to appear before courts or government
agencies. This stage will involve the 4th year law students.

The interns will have to undergo orientations on the following subjects before
they formally start their internship to prepare them for the task:

Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997

Gender Sensitivity
 Conflict Sensitivity and Conflict Transformation

Alternative / Developmental Lawyering

Review on Legal Ethics

3. CHALLENGES IN INSTITUTIONALIZING THE LEGAL ASSISTANCE

PROGRAM

The ULAP will need the following resources:

HUMAN RESOURCES

- Supervising Lawyer

- Staff (for secretarial, coordination, events organizing works)

- Paralegals/Law Students

LAW LIBRARY

OFFICE, OFFICE EQUIPMENT

LOGISTICS

FUNDS FOR CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITES

LINKAGES WITH THE PARTNER COMMUNITIES3 AND EXPERTISE

IN DEALING WITH THE CONFLICTS FACED BY THESE PARTNER
COMMUNITIES

The College of Law, at the moment, can only provide the Paralegals/law
students, law library, office, and funds for utilities. It already has an office
designated for the ULAP. The College of Laws present resources, however,
cannot provide for a consultant, supervising lawyer, staff, office equipment
(like computers), logistics and funds for capacity development activities. The

3 The partner communities are the indigenous peoples, marginal upland farmers, fisherfolks,
women, young men and other marginalized sectors of the community.
 College of Law also has no extensive linkages with the partner communities
and has only occasional dealings with conflicts faced by the partner
communities. In view of this, it needs to partner with an institution which
shares the same mission of providing legal assistance to the poor, deprived
and oppressed sectors and can provide resources that will complement the
available resource of the College of Law.

The COSERAM program on legal assistance and conflict transformation

mechanism for women, IPs, farmers, fisherfolks in the region and other
partner communities, specifically Option 4 of the Strategic Paper on Legal Aid
and Conflict Transformation Mechanism, presents a partnership opportunity to
the College of Law in order to realize its legal clinic whereby GIZ-COSERAM
can provide the technical support which the College of Law lacks for the
establishment of a ULAP.

4. STAKEHOLDERS AND THEIR ROLES

The possible stakeholders for the ULAP are the GIZ-COSERAM, FSUU
(College of Law), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), the IBP local chapters,
Regional Line Agencies which deals with the conflicts of the partner
communities such as DAR, DILG, BFAR, NCIP, and the local government
units.

GIZ-COSERAM shall provide for the technical support through a financial

agreement with FSUU for the following:

1. Salaries for the Supervising Lawyer and staff

2. Office equipment

3. Logistical requirements

4. Funds Capacity Building Activities

In the initial phase, GIZ-COSERAM shall also provide the linkages with the
partner communities and expertise in dealing with the conflicts faced by the
said communities.
 The FSUU College of Law shall run the ULAP and exercise control and
supervision of its operations. It will provide the library, physical office, and
venue for activities. FSUU, through the College of Law, will ensure that there
are ready and available law student-paralegals to participate in achieving the
indicators of the COSERAM, i.e., the use of legal assistance services and
mechanisms for peaceful conflict transformation. It will facilitate the capacity
development activities to be provided to the partner communities and sectors.
Likewise, it will be in-charge of monitoring and evaluation of the operations of
the ULAP.

The CSOs and IBP Local Chapers, starting with the Butuan City Agusan del
Norte and Surigao del Norte Chapters, can assist in providing additional
supervising lawyers under the legal assistance program. Aside from
supervising lawyers, CSOs and IBP can provide link for future community
partners/clients of ULAP. There is an existing Memorandum of Agreement
between IBP Butuan City Agusan del Norte Chapter on legal assistance.

Regional Line Agencies, such as the NCIP, shall be the partner of ULAP in
providing capacity development activities to strengthen the capacity of FSUU
as a duty bearer in offering legal assistance to the partner communities and IP.
The RLAs can provide technical support to ULAP in legal orientations for the
partner communities. They shall also provide linkages to partner communities.

The barangay based institutions and the partner communities of COSERAM

will be the partners of the ULAP at the community level to whom legal
assistance will be provided.

The stakeholders shall ensure the documentation of processes including the

reflections/FGDs of the partners - so that learnings are captured succinctly.

5. SERVICES TO BE OFFERED
 The establishment of a Conflict Sensitive Legal Assistance Program at FSUU
that will provide legal services to marginal sectors, especially the IP, is based
on the following underlying goals: (a) achieving effective interface of formal
legal processes and customary laws and practices of IP toward conflict
transformation; and (b) influencing future lawyers to be CS/CT advocates of
IP rights. These goals are the basis for the kind of legal services that the
ULAP will offer.

The services to be offered are related to the course requirements of the

College of Law and the COSERAM Options 1, 2 and 3 of the Strategic Paper
on Legal Assistance and Conflict Transformation Mechanism:

A. Capacity-building, especially on alternative dispute resolution

4
mechanisms/processes for the Katarungang Pambarangay IPs, women,
marginal upland farmers, fisherfolks, youth and other partner communities.

B. Documentation services like preparation of affidavits and other

documentary requirements needed for cases involving violations of the
rights of IPs, women, farmers, fisherfolks, young men in partner
communities.

C. Legal Advise/Counselling with the emphasis on availing of alternative

dispute resolution mechanisms in resolving issues and conflicts.

D. Litigation services

E. Policy research that will provide a platform for public policy formulation
especially on environment and natural resources laws and indigenous
peoples laws

4 This includes other ADR mechanisms such as but not limited to the FARMCs, and
traditional/indigenous processes of settling disputes on natural resources.
 6. TABLE OF COMPARISON OF THE PRESENT LEGAL ASSISTANCE AND
ULAP

PRESENT LEGAL ULAP

ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

Target Beneficiaries Not Defined Indigenous peoples in the

Barangays of Butuan City,
Bislig City, Municipality of
Sibagat, Agusan del Norte,
Municipalities of
Esperanza and SanLuis,
Agusan del Sur

Fisherfolks in the
municipalities of Malimono,
Surigao del Norte and
Liangga, Surigao del Sur

Women in Caraga Region

Marginal Upland Farmers

in Caraga Region

Katarungan Pambarangay
in Caraga

Students Involved Fourth year students and All students

some first year and second
year students
Subjects Involved Statutory Construction Legal Research

Natural Resources and Agrarian Law and Social

Environmental Law Legislation

Practice Court I and II Human Rights Law

Natural Resources and

Environmental Law

Land Titles and Deeds

Legal Forms

Legal Counseling and

Social Responsibility

Practice Court I

Practice Court II

Existence of an Office None Yes

Existence of Office Staff None Yes

Accreditation by Supreme None Yes

Court

Existence of Immersion / None Yes

Trainings for Paralegals in
addition to classroom
discussion

Services Offered Legal Counseling and Capacity Building,

Legal Research especially on alternative
dispute resolution
mechanisms/processes for
the Katarungan
Pambarangay IPs, women,
marginal upland farmers,
fisherfolks, youth and other
partner communities

Documentation services
like preparation of
 affidavits and other
documentary requirements
needed for cases involving
violations of the rights of
IPs, women, farmers,
fisherfolk, yound men in
partner communitites

Legal Advise/Counseling
with the emphasis on
availing of alternative
dispute resolution
mechanisms in resolving
issues and conflicts

Litigation services

Policy Research to provide

a platform that will help
shape public policy
formulation especially on
environment and natural
resources laws and
indigenous peoples laws.

7. PERIOD OF THE PARTNERSHIP WITH GIZ-COSERAM

The period of the partnership is for a year with a possibility for extension of
another year.

8. MILESTONES
FIRST YEAR

Setting up the law assistance program

Creation of the ULAP handbook which will contain operational policies,

criteria for client selection

Capacity building of the staff of ULAP, faculty and students of the

College of Law on the IPRA, ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS, CS/CT,
ALTERNATIVE LAWYERING, GENDER SENSITIVITY, INTERFACING
OF CUSTOMARY LAWS and NATIONAL LAWS, ADR

Accreditation with the Supreme Court

Establishment of linkages with partners

Start of delivery of services to clients

SECOND YEAR

Crafting of the ULAP Operational and Sustainability Plan

Submission of proposal to introduce changes in the law curriculum that

will allow FSUU College of Law to have more units for laws affecting
indigenous peoples, environmental laws and alternative dispute resolution
before the Philippine Association of Law Schools (PALS)

Documentation of the Interfacing of Customary and National Laws

THIRD YEAR

Implementation of the ULAP Operational and Financial Sustainability

Plan

Endorsement of the proposal of changes for changes in the law

curriculum by the PALS to the Legal Education Board (LEB) and Supreme
Court

Presentation of the Documentation of the Interfacing of Customary

Laws and National Laws before the PALS, LEB and Supreme Court

Crafting of Policy Proposal on the Interfacing Mechanism of Customary

and National Laws
9. SUSTAINABILITY

To ensure the sustainability of the ULAP after the partnership, the College of
Law shall charge legal clinic fees for each students every semester. The total
expenses for the one year operations of the legal assistance under the
partnership with GIZ-COSERAM shall be a guide in assessing the legal
assistance fees. The fees shall partly fund the operation of the ULAP.

In addition, the ULAP shall also access support/funding from other sources
like NEDA, OPAPP, and MINDA.

The IBP, Csos and RLAs can provide linkages to future partner communities.

10. FINANCIAL AGREEMENT

The partnership terms and conditions shall be governed by a Financial

Agreement entered into between the Father Saturnino Urios University and
GIZ-COSERAM.