University of Cebu-College of Law Banilad, Cebu City: Submitted by [PDF]

Zitiervorschau

UNIVERSITY OF CEBU- COLLEGE OF LAW BANILAD, CEBU CITY

BASIC LEGAL ETHICS

AN ESSAY TO THE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC TO LAW STUDENTS, TO THE SUBJECT BASIC LEGAL ETHICS, AND THE LEGAL PROFESSION

Submitted by: LORENZ MOISES ENRICK BINGHAY

Submitted to: ATTY. CARLO VINCENT GIMENA

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown our community into a period of uncertainty since the virus is new and has yet to be controlled. The national and local governments came up with plans to keep citizens safe while trying to avoid a high increase of cases. Despite the emphasis of the healthcare system during this crisis, the essence of law and order can aid our community in giving structured plans and assurance to the people that there are actions being taken for their benefit. With that in place, legal ethics sets the standards and boundaries that regulate the actions and behaviors of our law practitioners. One instance where in legal ethics has been brought up during the pandemic is the issue of waiving the confidentiality and revealing the individuals who have been infected with COVID-19 and those who have been classified as Person Under Investigation. The issue to waive this confidential information has been brought up since it is seen as a way to inform the public of who are carries of the virus and to further protect them from getting infected. Waiving this confidential information can also prevent our healthcare workers from getting infected since there have been cases of patients not disclosing their true condition when they seek medical treatment. Normally, patient-doctor confidentiality is set in place in order to protect the privacy of the patient and to keep in secret the health condition he or she has. However, as stated in the Joint Administrative Order No. 2016-0002, in the case of emergency where time is of the essence, disclosure may be made even without court order. Disclosing the identities of these patients and potentially infected individual can serve as a helpful tool to the protection of the general public’s health. The pandemic may have its significant impact to our healthcare system and economy but it also has its fair share of impacting the legal profession. While the medical field takes care of the health of the community, those who practice the legal profession help in the smooth operations and adaptation of various activities during the pandemic. Since we are currently experiencing Enhanced Community Quarantine, a lot of adjustments have to be made since we can longer rely on our normal everyday routine before the pandemic. Our fellow law practitioners can help give guidance to business that are affected by the pandemic and aid them in how to handle their displaced workers. In a government level, lawyers can be present to create orders that fit the quarantine recently enacted to our community. There have been cases of people who have gone against quarantine rules and gone to public places or had a mass gathering. Cases like this present the opportunity for lawyers to ensure that

these people will be given the appropriate penalty in accordance to the degree of the action committed and to keep everything fair in the eyes of the law. Penalizing these rule breakers will remind everyone else that it is important to have order and peace during a pandemic since coordination within the community can be beneficial when it comes to fighting the virus.