“What is taking the Integrated Bar of the Philippines so long to disbar this outrageous excuse for a lawyer?” the Inquirer’s April 17 editorial asked in light of lawyer Lorenzo Gadon’s “one demonstrable act of public lying after another” in his impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
The IBP has been known to be too subservient to the Supreme Court to do anything that might displease it in the slightest bit. Contrary to its avowed mission to promote the interest of lawyers in the country who are one in complaining about decades – long delays in the disposition of cases even in the high court which should set an example to the lower courts, the IBP has always turned a deaf ear on that blatant defiance of the Constitution.
Indeed, given the fact that majority of the Supreme Court (led by Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro who has a running feud with Sereno) has Gadon’s back, it is wishful thinking to expect the IBP to aim its guns directly at him without offending De Castro and her cabal of about seven or more justices.
True, it has tried to intervene and block the quo warranto petition filed by the solicitor general as a shortcut to the tedious removal process against Sereno; but that is all just for show — its arguments are mostly platitudinous (like contrary to the Constitution, blah, blah, blah, urged upon a tribunal that has little or no respect for the fundamental law).
Gadon’s “evidence” against Sereno was all “hearsay” and that should have been enough to junk the impeachment complaint right from the start. Even law students like us know that.
So, will the IBP dare take disciplinary action against Gadon? That’s not gonna happen.
GABRIELLE MICHELLE M. AGUILLERA, gamma.reyna@gmail.com