WASHINGTON D.C. – Harvard University has honored another Filipino by naming him the 2007-2008 distinguished Wasserstein Fellow for Public Service in recognition of his "outstanding contribution and dedication to public interest law."
Awarded the recognition late last month is El Cid Butuyan, a graudate of Harvard Law Schol in 2004, and of the University of the Philippines. Butuyan's award came a month after Franklin Tan, who graduated with a masters of law degree, also had the honor of delivering the commencement speech before the Harvard Law graduating class.
Butuyan is the first foreign, non-American graduate of the law school to be honored with the Fellowship. The Wasserstein family, which recently gave $25 million to fund Harvard’s new academic center, endowed the Harvard Wasserstein Public Interest Fellowship to recognize exemplary lawyers who have distinguished themselves in public interest work and have made significant contributions to their fields.
It honors those who use their legal education to advance the goals of Social justice in their work and invites the holder of the fellowship to Deliver talks and lectures on public interests law and mentor Harvard students who wish to pursue opportunities in public service and public interest advocay. Harvard Law School has produced many public service leaders ranging from founders and directors of non profits to heads of cabinets in federal and state agencies, to elected officials, to members of the bench, to pioneers in public international work, to pro bono leaders in the private sector.
Past recipients of the Fellowship include such legal eagles as the Prosecutor of the United Nations (UN) International Criminal Tribunal, the ACLU National Legal Director, a Senator from North Carolina, the Special Counsel and Advisor to the UN Ambassador for War Crimes, a US Federal District Judge, the Legal Director of NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, the General Counsel for Human Rights Campaign, the founder of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, and the Director of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Butuyan has made his mark in international circles for his work on anti-corruption at the World Bank, where he is a legal counsel at its headquarters in Washington D.C. He worked on, among others Whistleblower Protection and the sanctioning of corrupt companies in World Bank Projects worldwide which earned him distinctions and awards. He has also Assisted African states in drafting anti-corruption legislation and Eastern European and Central Asian countries in advancing procurement reforms. In addition he has been recipient of various awards from the former Prime Minister of Peru, Philippine Ambassador to the US Willy Gaa, and recently, at the US Capitol, from members of the US Congress.
Butuyan, a son of a farmer and retired public school teacher from the Northern province of Isabela in the Philippines was part of the impeachment Prosecution team against former President Joseph Erap Estrada, where he worked with former Solicitor General and Ombusdman Simeon Marcelo as one of the private prosecutors. He is the younger brother of Atty. Joel Butuyan who, together with Atty. Harry Roque, was the principal lawyer in the impeachment articles against another President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the principal beneficiary of Estrada’s removal from office. Joel Butuyan and Roque also represent the Philippine journalists who filed a class suit against First Gentleman Mike Arroyo.
Aside from Tan and Butuyan, the world famous university awarded in 2004 magna cum laude honors to a young Pinoy from Hawaii, Kiwi Camara, the youngest ever graduate in the history of its law school. Genuine Opposition spokesperson Adel Tamano also delivered a speech at the law school in 2005. In various fora and sessions attended by young lawyers and law students at Harvard, Butuyan emphasizes that there is no one track, no one size fits all formula for a successful and fulfilling career in the service of public interest, except that one must have an abiding keen sense of history and clear understanding of purpose.
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