I am glad that the Bantay Gloria Network is asking the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) to account for the P30 million given by the national government, through the Supreme Court, for the Expanded Legal Aid Program.
My understanding is that P30 million was released by the Supreme Court to the IBP last year supposedly to provide free legal aid to indigent litigants. Thus, the government gave money to a private entity for a specific purpose.
But I was shocked to learn that the IBP recently put out full-page newspaper advertisements in support of Chief Justice Renato Corona who has been impeached for culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust and graft and corruption.
If I recall right, the IBP was created as a non-political association. But why is it dipping its fingers in an outright political activity? Not only that, the IBP is extolling Corona as God’s gift to the Philippine judiciary!
If it is true that the IBP spent taxpayers’ money for the full-page advertisements costing hundreds of thousands of pesos, then the IBP leadership has a lot of explaining to do before the Ombudsman.
—JEMMUEL CASTRO,
jhigs.castro@hotmail.ph