My breakfast was complete reading your editorial “When lawyers hide misdeeds” (10/20/17). I honestly sympathize with the Castillo family, and the University of Santo Tomas must be so ashamed to have students from the Aegis Juris who were so “brave” to conduct initiation rites on Horacio Castillo III. Why? Using common sense, something might go wrong during those rites and every participant should be brave enough to face the consequences of their actions. They cowered in FEAR and refused when they were asked to take part in a DNA examination to confirm their presence at the initiation rites. What a shame!
In your last paragraph it stated: “When these are all proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the lawyers involved must be disbarred, the law students disqualified, the guilty placed behind bars.” I beg to disagree. Here is why.
I filed a disbarment case against a lawyer from Mountain Province in the Supreme Court. It was referred to the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) for investigation. Then it was referred to the Commission on Bar Discipline (CBD) of the IBP. This lawyer notarized two deeds of sale concerning one and the same property. One deed of sale was worth P850,000 and another was P150,000 which was used for the BIR. Lo and behold, the lawyer commissioner of the CBD recommended that my complaint be dismissed due to lack of merit and affirmed by the board of governors of the IBP who are all lawyers. I filed a motion for reconsideration and it was an exercise in futility because it was subsequently dismissed. Lawyers don’t hide their misdeeds, they openly flaunt/boast about it. Seemingly, the IBP is a livelihood center to protect erring lawyers! I can cite more examples.
The disbarment of lawyers involved in Castillo’s hazing is a “suntok sa buwan.” I am sorry.
JUNIPER DOMINGUEZ, Sabangan, Mountain Province