College of Law

The UC College of Law believes that law forms the core of our social and personal lives. It is the linchpin, the amicus vitae of all government and society.

The UC College of Law believes that the life of law is not logic; the life of law is experience, for law embodies the story of a nation's development through the centuries.

The College of Law believes in the overriding principle that governs the practice of law and the administration of justice - the deep commitment and adherence to TRUTH and JUSTICE, values which have remained constant and immutable through the years. For without TRUTH there can never be JUSTICE.

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free"

UC College of Law stands foursquare on the principle that justice is truth in action. We believe that in all human conflicts, truth and righteousness shall ultimately prevail.

No one who loves the law loves injustice - but the law exists to protect all that bow before its majesty or not.

The College of Law is oriented to the philosophy of lifelong learning dedicated to service.

Programs

• Bachelor of Laws

History

Smoke was yet billowing out of the pile of rubble that was Manila right after liberation when the young Ben Salvosa could no longer ignore the call to go north. In the United States the call was, Go west, young man. West, to the land of milk and honey. Here it was north. North, to the heartland of the "kuripots," where he found a mining town ripe for education and a climate that was just what the doctor ordered for his asthma.

To the North Ben brought his asthma and his dream. His dream - an educational center of the north - started to take shape in Baguio Colleges. It continues to grow - later to become the Baguio Colleges Foundation; now the University of the Cordilleras - bringing the light of education to the Cordilleras and Northern Luzon.

To himself, a successful legal practitioner, it was just a matter of time before he started toying with the idea of a College of Law in the north, a college modeled after his alma mater, the UP College of Law, or at least on his fond recollection of it.

More than anyone, Ben was aware that the BCF College of Law was an experiment, and a costly one at that. Until the seventies, the College could not support itself, and had to depend on a subsidy from the school administration. It was the only College of Law North of Manila when it opened in 1952 - to a lot of raised eyebrows. Could it hold its own in the bar examinations?

We owe it to the first batch of BCF law graduates for proving the experimenter, BCF Founder Ben Salvosa, right. Had the first batch done poorly in the bar, the founder might conceivably have succumbed to pressure to phase out the college, as quietly as he had founded it. As far as can be determined, all members of that intrepid group have since passed away, many ahead of the founder. Offhand, one remembers Atty. Guillermo de Guzman, Atty. Alex Brillantes, Judge Tomas Macaranas, Judge Federico Cabato and Atty. Onofre Alabanza, who became a member of the faculty. As the pioneers, their memories will continue to be recalled whenever and wherever alumni forgather.

Even under favorable circumstances the birthing of a college, especially a College of Law, is difficult. The main problem is putting together a faculty. For some time, the Founder himself taught law and served as the first Dean from 1952 to 1966.

It was only after 1966 that the founder started handling the reins to BCF law graduates: Victor Punzalan, Faustino Basaen, Jose Cristobal, Edilberto B. Tenefrancia, Teopisto Rondez, Honorato Y. Aquino. The present dean is Reynaldo U. Agranzamendez.

Mission and Vision

The philosophy, vision, mission and objectives of the College of Law are in consonance with the purposes of the Legal Education of the Philippines and with the vision, mission and goals of the University of the Cordilleras.

Vision

The new millennium will witness the dawning of the Age of University in almost all phases of human activity. As people and nations slowly and irreversibly move towards borderless transactions in international trade and commerce, and towards increasing multilateral cooperation in the development of science and technology, health, medicine, education, diplomacy and all other human faculties, there will be an increasing demand for "global lawyers" who are attuned to these competitive times, and who will be learned in the contemporary discipline of brokering peace, understanding and cooperation among diverse societies.

The field of law will be one of the frontiers in this global march towards social oneness for it shall be the men and women of law who will lay down the new rules of engagement for all human intercourse in the 21st century - and beyond.

There will come in the future, an international community of legal scholars whose wisdom and intercession shall become the fiber of the emerging global culture. Invariably, some of these legal scholars will be Filipinos, and most of them will be graduates of the University of the Cordilleras College of Law.

• There will be others of course, and of these others, most of them would have been trained by graduates of the UC College of Law, for UC College of Law shall become a Center of Excellence in Global Understanding in Law.

Mission

The UC College of Law believes in its solemn duty to train men and women in the study of Law, who would be confronted with the challenges of the legal practice and will become part of the living canvass into which the stories of lives, impressions, prejudices, memories and fleeting passions are interwoven and transformed through them by the courts into judgments of a legal significance to be carried over into the future as regulatory precepts for the good ordering of society.

College Objectives

Specifically, the college aims to:

1. provide training, first and foremost to develop in the law students, a sound foundation in the fundamentals of basic legal knowledge so that they would not only successfully hurdle the bar examinations but would as well equip them with the confidence and the attitude to start their law practice and a lifetime of legal adventure;
2. provide students with the knowledge, skills and attitudes of a lawyer who is oriented to the legal needs of the Filipino people in general and of the region in particular;
3. prepare its law students to pass if not top the bar examinations;
4. develop in the students the critical thinking and problem solving skills, decision making and leadership abilities, communication and pedagogical skills, and the desire and capability of self learning;
5. promote moral and spiritual values and ethical behavior essential to the practice of law to include love of country, social responsibility, competence, integrity, probity and independence, in order to assure the people of their right to speedy, honest and scholarly disposition of cases instituted by or against them before the courts;
6. foster awareness of contemporary social issues, especially those relevant to the legal profession such as the dignity of the human person, violence against women and children, and human rights;
7. contribute to national development through involvement in the various programs of the IBP, such as Free Legal Aid to the indigent litigants;
8. discover various aptitudes and interests of its students essential to their development as persons and future law practitioners through the various activities of Barristers' Club such as but not limited to: Bar Operations, Testimonial Dinner for successful bar passers, group interaction seminars for bar flunkers, sponsorship of debates among law students.