"He was warm, jovial and decent."
"He was warm, jovial and decent."
Filipinos who received their legal education from Ateneo de Manila University’s Law School are bound to remember Joaquin G. Bernas, S.J., who passed away a week ago, as three persons: as a warm human being, as a law-school dean and as an authority on constitutional law.
First, Joaquin G. Bernas, the human being: My first encounter with one of the handful of lawyers of the Society of Jesus’s Philippine province, was in his Padre Faura office the early part of an October evening in 1974. A close friend of mine who thought that I belonged in law school had arranged for me to be interviewed by Fr. Bernas, who was then in the first of his two terms as Ateneo Law School dean. I had hoped that his tone would be one of welcome and encouragement, but that was not the case. No sooner had I begun to warm my seat than he leaned back in his swivel chair and asked: “Why do you want to become a lawyer? You’re already established as an economist.” I had to come up with an answer quickly. “Fr. Bernas,” I began, “in my work in the Central Bank of the Philippines I am often asked to about give the opinion on some proposed monetary measure, and 90 percent of the time some fellow at the end of the table says that my opinion is constitutionally or legally not feasible. I want to learn what is and what is not legally feasible.” The Ateneo Law School broke into a big grin and said, “I like that.” The rest, as the cliche goes, is history. I became a law student that very evening.
Earlier I used the word “warm” to describe Joaquin G Bernas. Warm he was. But he was not given to waste of time or to fluffy talk. Fr. Bernas was on the borderline of arrogance, if the truth be told, but it was arrogance born of knowledge that he knew what he was doing and that people knew it.
The Ateneo Law School community’s attitude to the man from Baao, Camarines Sur was a mixture of awe and affection.
Joaquin G. Bernas was no ivory-tower academic. He was a both-feet-on-the-ground master of the law. Having been a law student and a professor, he understood the needs and aspirations of the Ateneo Law School community. Though he ran the Law School like a tight ship, still the students and professors knew that the man at the top was a fair and considerate person.
Whether intentionally or otherwise; Joaquin G. Bernas, the lawyer, came to focus on, and to be firmly associated with, Constitutional law. As I sat and listened to him in Constitutional law class, I thought of how Fr. Bernas was a match for Harvard University in the well-received film “The Paper Chase.” Without a doubt, Joaquin G. Bernas’ two-volume “Commentary on the Philippine Constitution” has become the Bible on Constitutional law for most Filipino law students.
Fr. Bernas first became Ateneo Law School dean during martial law and he totally detested Ferdinand Marcos and his dictatorial regime. But, being the dispassionate and rational person that he was, he kept his political emotions under control and never got into the urge to publicly manifest his disdain and loathing.
Joaquin G. Bernas had the chance to help undo the evils wrought by the Marcos dictatorship when President Cory Aquino selected him as one of the 50 members of the Commission that would draft a Constitution to replace the unratified 1973 Constitution. At a time when itchy political fingers are once again trying to revise the 1986 Constitutional Commission’s hard work, it is truly a pity that Fr. Bernas is no longer around to impress upon the would-be revisionists the significance and consequences of ill-considered tinkering with the Basic Law.
Sadly, the last time I was with Fr. Bernas was in May 2018, when my Ateneo Law School class went to have lunch with our beloved former dean at the home within the Ateneo Loyola campus where retired Jesuits are housed and cared for. When we got to the residence, Fr. Bernas was at the door, waiting for us. When my classmates were unloading lunch stuff from the cars, Fr. Bernas called out in his typical half-joking tone, “Where’s the whiskey?”
That’s the Joaquin G. Bernas I want to—and will always—remember: Warm, jovial, decent.
Vale, Fr. Bernas.
