After 2020/21 Bar exam results out, 'Machiavellian' Clarita Carlos says PH doesn't need more lawyers
Retired University of the Philippines (UP) professor Clarita Carlos made the rounds online yet again for her unpopular theory, following the release of the 2020/21 Bar examination results on April 12. She said the Philippines doesn't need more lawyers.
“Not to rain on anyone’s parade…but, me thinks we need more scientists, engineers and doctors…not more lawyers!” Carlos wrote in a now-deleted April 13 post, which had tens of thousands of reactions and hundreds of comments and shares.
Carlos told PhilSTAR L!fe in an online interview that she deleted the post a day after reading several "vicious and vile" remarks.
"I had articulated similar views years and years ago," she said. "I post to engender rational discussion, not comments full of bile and venom," adding that Facebook supposedly "no longer serves the purpose of connecting human beings but instead fomenting hatred, vileness, ill will."
Many netizens had taken the political scientist to task for her contentious post.
Gideon Peña, lawyer and Far Eastern University law lecturer, acknowledged that while the country needs more scientists, doctors, farmers indeed—he said lawyers are just as needed.
Citing data found in the Sept. 16, 2016, BusinessWorld column “Too Many Lawyers” by lawyer and law professor Jemy Gatdula, Peña said there's one lawyer for every 240 Americans vis-a-vis one lawyer for every 2,500 Filipinos.
In the US, there’s 1 lawyer for every 240 people. In the Philippines, there’s roughly 1 lawyer for every 2,500 people.
— Gideon V. Peña (@attygideon) April 13, 2022
We do need more scientists, doctors and farmers but we also need more lawyers in the country.
Before raining on other people's parade, check your data first.
In another tweet, Peña noted that there's only one practicing lawyer for every 6,875. There's also an "even bigger disproportion" in other countries, based on data from the 10th Conference of Italian Society of Law and Economics in 2014.
"Before raining on other people's parade, check your data first," Peña said.
John Molo, a "lawyer, father, teacher" according to his Twitter bio, said one doesn't need to slight a profession to make a point—especially when Bar passers and their families are celebrating.
One doesnt need to slight a profession to make a point. And one certainly doesnt do it just when Bar Passers & their families are celebrating.
— John Molo (@iamJohnMolo) April 13, 2022
To "rain on anyone's parade" doesnt make one better. It betrays a frail ego.
Only the secure can afford to be kind.
"To 'rain on anyone's parade' doesnt make one better. It betrays a frail ego. Only the secure can afford to be kind," Molo wrote.
In a sharper tone, Twitter user @ryanbalisacan told Carlos to go down from her "ivory tower" and spend even just one day in the Quezon City Hall of Justice, a regional trial court in the province, the National Labor Relations Commission, and the Public Attorney's Office.
Go down from your ivory tower, Prof. Carlos. Spend just one day observing the QC Hall of Justice, at least one RTC in the province, the NLRC, and at least one PAO district office. THEN say we have no need for more lawyers. ARAL BAGO KUDA. That's how true political scientists work https://t.co/t4XzKMNhst
— ryan balisacan (@ryanbalisacan) April 13, 2022
"ARAL BAGO KUDA. That's how true political scientists work," the tweet read.
Some netizens, meanwhile, were more permissive, like Twitter user @librascending, who wondered "why people are taking Clarita Carlos' post all negatively."
I don't know why people are taking Clarita Carlos' post all negatively. Wouldn't it be wonderful to set a goal to a more progressive country, one that would need more scientists, engineers and doctors, over a litigious society that needs more lawyers? pic.twitter.com/eivl9QWrYE
— libby (@librascending) April 13, 2022
"Wouldn't it be wonderful to set a goal to a more progressive country," the user tweeted, "one that would need more scientists, engineers and doctors, over a litigious society that needs more lawyers?"
Jocelle Batapa Sigue, meanwhile, said that while it's "controversial," she "doesn't disagree" with Carlos's post about needing more doctors, scientists, and engineers than lawyers.
Though Sigue said the question is how to build the environment for the science-based professions "to truly thrive in this country, and that their ideas and proficiency really used to generate public value."
"What we don't need are more politicians who make politics their profession, who take government resources but do not create significant public value," she said.
The historic 2020/21 Bar exams, the first digitized exams ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, saw 8,241 out of 11,402 passers, or a 72.28% passing rate, the highest since the 75.17% passing rate in 1954.
Carlos first made a splash on social media after serving as a panelist at the SMNI presidential debates last Feb. 15.
She next made headlines on March 26 during the network's presidential interviews, where she asked Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. if he's Machiavellian, derived from Niccolò Machiavelli who wrote the political treatise The Prince.
According to Merriam-Webster, being Machiavellian is marked by "cunning, duplicity, or bad faith."
In a follow-up Facebook post, Carlos provided more details about her question and in another one proclaimed that she's "Machiavellian" herself.