For Constitutional Law 1 class, our professor made us replay in our own way the Supreme Court proceedings in Lambino vs. COMELEC. My blockmates and I took on different roles as Supreme Court Justices, petitioners and respondents. I was on the side of the Sigaw ng Bayan / People’s Initiative petitioners as Erico Aumentado. Some of us even took on the role of the Solicitor General and amicus curiae Joaquin Bernas.

A day before the moot court, we reserved the court room to get a feel of the proceedings the next day. The next day, we even wore robes in our “role-playing”.

It was pretty interesting being on the side of the petitioners defending the now-botched people’s initiative charter change petition of Sigaw ng Bayan, which was once one of the most heated socio-political issue in the country back in 2005, if I’m not mistaken. I was against it back then. Going through the case made me rethink the issue. I still feel largely against it, however, but only in as much as it was obviously a political maneuver during those days. In principle, I think charter change (though, we have to qualify what sort of change) and people’s initiative is a good idea.

Yesterday, we replayed the justices’ deliberations using our own arguments, and we invited Atty. Raul Lambino, himself, to witness it and talk about the petition. He’s one of our blockmate’s father, actually.