Law with a Conscience
by Hon. Justice Jeoffre Willkom Acebido
2013 Outstanding Sillimanian Awardee for Judicial Service
This is the speech delivered by guest speaker and Juris Doctor (JD) conferee, Hon. Justice Jeoffre Willkom Acebido, during the 2nd JD Conferral Ceremony of the Silliman University College of Law.
If I were chosen to give a speech in order to inspire and motivate you, then the officers of the Silliman University Law Alumni Association, Inc. have committed a grave error in judgment. I doubt that I could meet these parameters and be on par with your expectations, especially since I am speaking before more capable and deserving personalities against whom I pale in comparison.
Justices of the Court of Appeals are generally known for making awe-inspiring speeches, clear and deliberate in their messages. However, I must hasten to add that, having been appointed to the position just months ago, I am an exception and not even sure to reach that level. As a former law practitioner, prosecutor, and judge, I was trained, among others, to give legal opinions and render decisions. It was seldom that I was asked to speak in as daunting a situation as now. Barely five months from my appointment as an Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals, today is my time to speak before a distinguished assembly of lawyers, and the first time to address my fellow graduates of Silliman University College of Law. To be candid, fear that I might spoil this significant moment in your lives when you are conferred the title of Juris Doctor by later being proven undeserving to speak before you.
Be that as it may, if I do fail to encourage and motivate you after I shall have spoken, you only have the officers of Silliman University Law Alumni Association to blame. Of course, you may include Retired Judge Rafael Cresencio Tan, who, I believe, recommended that I be the speaker in today’s event.
Having said that, let me now proceed to the task at hand.
Today is a homecoming.
We gather here not just as guests or honorees, but as sons and daughters of Silliman Law, returning to where our journeys began. Only this time, to close a circle that we, for many years, did not even know was still open.
For many of us who graduated from the Bachelor of Laws program, we left these halls with the knowledge that we were ready to practice law. We took our oaths, we entered courtrooms, we served in offices, and we lived out our calling as members of the legal profession. But today, through this conferment of the Juris Doctor degree, we are given a rare gift. Not just a reclassification of credentials, but a reaffirmation of our identity as lifelong students of the law.
Because the truth is, no title, no diploma, no number of years in service ever truly marks the end of learning. The law evolves. Society evolves. And as students of the law, we are called to evolve with them… not away from our principles, but deeper into them.
Today is a milestone. But it is also a mirror we must face. It reminds us to look back, not to measure how far we’ve come in titles or ranks, but to ask ourselves: How much of what I have learned has been used to serve others? How much of my success has been shared? How much of my influence has been tempered by integrity?
I graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from this university one year shy of forty years ago. I wasn’t exactly the model student who always had all the right answers. Back then, I was a wide-eyed law student trying to find my way through the labyrinth of codals, case digests, and the occasional existential crisis about what the law really means.
I must confess, while some of my classmates were busy drowning themselves in their law books, I was more often busy drowning myself in something else. My law school friends would know what I mean. But joking aside, most of my law school had really been about trying to find deeper meaning in the law and in those four words prominently marked on our logo: “Law with a Conscience.”
Somehow, and might I say miraculously, I survived those years. With God’s grace and Silliman University’s very stubborn insistence that we keep learning, I became a lawyer and eventually found myself in the judiciary. Then I got slapped again with the realization that the struggle doesn’t really end.
Not a few of my friends and colleagues had expected that I would be promoted and appointed as Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals years ago. But I languished for 19 years in the Regional Trial Court, and my journey to the Court of Appeals was over rough and rugged roads. Surely, it was long; it took me 13 years, three administrations, and seven nominations before I finally got appointed. Because it took me that long, I now hold the not-so-flattering distinction of being the oldest, among the incumbent Justices of the Court of Appeals, when appointed to the position.
I now sit on the appellate bench. And yet, standing here now, I must confess, I still carry that same youthful desire to find deeper meaning in the law. However, if my long journey, from my small courtroom salas to the appellate bench, has taught me anything, it is this: That integrity is louder than ambition. That kindness is not a weakness. And that quiet service leaves the loudest legacy.
Law with a conscience is what happens when the law bends toward compassion, when power submits to accountability, and when we choose courage over convenience. And that choice – to act with courage – will not always be obvious. It will not come with applause. Sometimes, it will come at a cost. Believe me, I have had more than my fair share of that.
Today, we receive a new title. But let us remind ourselves that today’s recognition, just as the titles we have obtained, is not a trophy, but a torch. We never really rise for ourselves alone.
Every promotion in government, every elevation in rank, is a deepened responsibility. It is not our title that makes us honorable. It is our fidelity to the oath we swore, and our long-standing commitment as Sillimanians to become advocates of law with a conscience.
To my fellow conferees, we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us and taught us that “Law” is not merely a profession—it is a vocation. The challenge now is to ensure that as we carry the title of Juris Doctor, we also carry the weight of what it truly means: Doctors of Law, healers of societal wounds, defenders of justice, and stewards of truth.
To our professors, mentors, and the Silliman University community, thank you for this moment. You remind us that a true education is never finished—it simply deepens. This is not a homecoming for our names, but for our purpose. Just as this conferment is not just a matter of nomenclature, it is an affirmation of Silliman University’s legacy of excellence, service, and moral steadfastness.
After this meaningful homecoming is over and when the sweet nostalgia wanes again, may we always remember that it is by our rectitude of conduct, by our noble thoughts and deeds, and not only by our great achievements, that we will be judged. It is by the record of our lives and actions that we will be weighed. May we ever bear in mind that if we live our lives rich in purpose and filled with kindness, they will be worth remembering, for what we do and what we are do make a difference.
Titles fade. Positions change. But character, character stays with us, long after the spotlight has moved on. What will matter most, years from now, is not the rank we held or the applause we received, but the quiet moments when we chose what was right over what was easy.
Let that be our legacy. Not the letters before or after our names, but the fortitude of our character.
My fellow Juris Doctors, congratulations to all of us. Let us carry this new title with humility, wear it with honor, and wield it with courage.
