OSG ‘kapalpakan’: Where is the IBP?
As usual, it is the Inquirer pool of editorial writers (nonlawyers) calling out the series of “kapalpakan” of the Office of the Solicitor General (currently headed by shamelessly Marcos-friendly Jose Calida) in its egregious mishandling (bungling!) of the ill-gotten wealth cases against the Marcos family (“Dereliction of duty,” 3/19/20; “Prosecutorial bungling,” 10/31/19).The nation has lost tens of billions in recoverable funds badly needed in times of calamities, like the now pandemic COVID-19. No one seems to be gloating over those cases being tanked more than Calida, the long-time gofer-lawyer for the Marcoses.
The Supreme Court, now veritably dominated by Marcos-friendly appointees of President Duterte (ergo, also Calida-friendly), is now the last thing in the people’s minds to do true justice to the nation in regard to the Marcoses. So, where is the voice of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), ostensibly run by lawyers dedicated to “truth and justice,” in all this in-your-face mockery of all the laws of the land? Have all its more than 60,000 IBP members been reduced to cowering cowards?
Never has there been a better reason to abolish the IBP, which seems to be only good at collecting annual dues! Seriously, what has it really done to raise the level of law practice to any degree of nobility the nation can be proud of, aside from kissing the asses of the powers-that-be? What comes to mind is the oft-repeated saying that lawyers—who do or say anything for their clients, if the price is right—are no more noble than prostitutes.
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