MAN OF IMPOSSIBLE MISSION
BERTENI “TOTO” CATALUÑA CAUSING is a man so passionate about achieving a mission impossible. His mission is to work for the establishment of a Philippines where THE PRESS IS FREE OF IMPRISONMENT and where THE PEOPLE ARE THE JUDGES. His vision is to see FILIPINOS ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN DISCUSSIONS OF ALL ISSUES IN A HIGH DEGREE OF DISCERNMENT AND DECENCY and FILIPINO LAYMEN
ENGAGED PASSIONATELY IN HEARING AND DISSECTING THROUGH ISSUES DURING TRIALS AND IN MAKING JUDGMENTS AS JURORS IN COURTS AND IN PROSECUTION OFFICES. His objective is to see Filipinos metamorphosing into people having the tradition, virtue and character of high degree of decency and into individuals exceedingly proud of themselves having no doubts they can do jobs beyond their limits. His belief in these two great principles as the strongest foundations of democracy, decency, self-confidence and unity of the people of this “Pearl of the Orient Seas” is unshakable and rigid. He is oozing with faith that every rebel will turn to peace for arms when these doctrines of liberty and justice are put to full work because they will see government transactions are transparent to foreclose possibilities for graft and corruption and notice justice wheels being turned by the people themselves to ensure the rich and poor play fair in all contests for vindication of injured rights. He has already initiated moves he deemed necessary to march to the altar of these principles. He organized Hukuman ng Mamamayan Movement Inc. (HMMI) to set in play the educational mission of informing some people to the irreplaceable values of the system where the judges are the people and where the ones making decisions who to indict in court are also the people. He and HMMI helped in the successful holding of the First Jury Convention at the University of the Philippines – National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG) on April 17, 2011. He and his buddy Jerry S. Yap (former president of National Press Club) and Edwin R. Alcala (experience labor organizer during Marcos time) established partylist group ALAB NG MAMAMAHAYAG (ALAM) and they gathered together believers in these ideas to form the core of ALAM. They all know ALAM is a group of the marginalized for being few in the advocacy for these greatest ideas ever conceived by men. He has prepared his self and developed his talent and skills to the fullest possible. His being a full scholar civil engineering student of Mindanao State University (MSU)-Marawi and as "Iskolar ng Maynila" law student of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) enabled him to acquire substantive knowledge on the principles of behaviors, laws and morality. His work experience as a sportswriter, news gatherer, news writer, feature writer, editorial writer, copy editor and news editor of People's Journal Tonight and as managing editor of Kabayan gave him the opportunities to learn real lessons of life, in its meanest or cruelest faces and in its jolliest modes. His works as a practicing lawyer mostly of the poor cemented his belief there is an enormous and urgent work that need to be done to close the big gap when the poor and the moneyed clash in courts, gaps that have been widened farther by judges and lawyers who operate to defeat the indigent.
