When common decency and morality become alien concepts
The latest of the so-called “legal eagles” who weighed in to defend Solicitor General Jose Calida is Inquirer columnist Oscar Franklin Tan (“Are Calida’s security contracts legal?”, 6/4/18). Tan cited a 1987 constitutional provision prohibiting “members of the Cabinet” from being “financially interested in any contract with” any government agency.
But Tan also reminded Calida’s critics of a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that exempts from that provision a solicitor general whose rank is merely deemed “equivalent” to a Cabinet secretary.
Ergo, the pseudosecretary Calida can be “financially interested” in any contract with the government, thereby enabling his
company to amass millions of taxpayer money. So, eat your hearts out!
Shakespeare had the foresight to write: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers!” Delicadeza has never been part of many lawyers’ vocabulary.
Common decency and morality are totally alien concepts to them. Dura lex sed lex (the law is harsh but that is the law). The law sucks, but that’s how lawyers make a living, so get over it!
Alas, this country is spawning thousands of new lawyers every year, and with a messy Supreme Court as their model of professional decorum and integrity, may God have mercy on us.
REY CHAVEZ ESCOBAR, [email protected]
