Atty. Martin T Suelto: ‘A Man of Faith, A Man of the Church’

Veteran lawyer Martin T. Suelto, legal counsel of the Archdiocese of Davao and a lay Eucharist minister of the Ascension of the Lord Parish, passed away on May 23 due to a stroke.  Archbishop Romulo Valles, describing Suelto as a “man of faith, a man of the Church,” thanked the family for his dedicated service to the Church. Below is a eulogy written by his partner, Atty. Martin B. Delgra III.

I believe that everything is by God’s design.

So, it was no coincidence that, having the same names, Martin and I have the same birthday, named after St. Martin of Tours. It was no coincidence too that I accepted his invitation to join his law office in 1991. I have heard that Mart, with a growing family and a busy private law practice, had been very much involved in a number of civic, socio-political and religious commitments, among which his being a legal counsel for the Archdiocese of Davao and in his advocacy in electoral reform. Prior to my joining him in his law firm, I spent my first three years of law practice as legal counsel of the Church of Basilan and was also involved in peace building advocacies and electoral reform activities while there.

But it was in private law practice that I was very fortunate to have Mart as my mentor. If I may say, my late father was a lawyer but I never had a chance to be under his tutelage because he died when I was still in high school.

Having been together for much of the years I have been in law practice and having seen him up close and personal in the practice of the profession that we both chose, I saw in Mart three qualities that I truly admire – passionate in the pursuit of the Rules of Law, unrelenting in the defense of his clients and very meticulous when it comes to trial preparation. He would unravel and dissect every piece of evidence for and against his clients’ cause in order to fully and adequately argue his case before the Court. In all these, two lessons I was able to draw from his example – the Rule of Law was his utmost priority and the trust and confidence of his clients, comes a close second.It surprised me to realize that Mart never put premium on the financial rewards expected of lawyers in the practice of their profession as perceived by many of us. Obviously, our vocation is not a regular job wherein we work from 8 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon. In a number of occasions, we would argue and confer with each other for long hours in the office discussing legal principles or legal strategies in actual cases and at times, even in the company of Linda, his wife, would stay on until the wee hours in the morning attending to our cases.

He once told me that one of the most important treasures in our profession is the trust and confidence of our clients, and to earn this is not to make false promises to bend the rules to meet their parochial interests but to tell them that their causes are worth fighting for.

I have always treasured his counsel whether be it in practice of my profession or in my other professional involvements. I recall a week before he fell unconscious, I sought him for advice on an important offer presented to me. He was in his usual elements – intellectually lucid, politically pragmatic yet morally consoling. His many advises I have taken to heart and would continue to be my guideposts in the practice of law and in my life even until today.

Indeed, it is in occasions like this that we don’t only confront the life and dead of Mart but we are also reminded of our own mortality, when God, in HIS own goodness, would call us back to him. It is in occasions like this that we pause to recall how far God has guided us, not measured in distance but in time, in this journey of life as we take stock from the lessons we learned from others. When we started this journey, like Mart, we had nothing and we were nothing. Like Mart, as we grow we recognize and understand our own identity in the family we grew up with, and as we grow much older we take responsibility not only for ourselves but for others. But unlike a number of us, Mart has taken his social responsibilities to a much higher level defined in the numerous involvements he passionately worked with and for others. In a number of these occasions, He touched our lives in a very positive way.

I hope and pray this is how we will remember him by.

(Delivered on June 4, 2013 Ascension of the Lord Parish, By Martin B. DelgraIII ,Partner, Suelto† Delgra Claudio CosapeQuilatan and Associates Law Offices)