Shakespearean solution to keep nation honest

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines is a useless organization. Originally intended to instill ethical values and promote professionalism among the ranks of lawyers in this country, it has prostituted itself in the service of mafia-type syndicates.

For one thing, it has always been controlled by an elite group of lawyers who parlay their positions of influence into gainful courtroom opportunities. For another, these are the same practitioners most sought after by crooks in government to hide ill-gotten wealth in layers upon layers of “corporate veils.” Being experts in the “arcana and complexity of the law,” they have set up legal shields to protect their clients from criminal prosecution.

Abogados de campanilla daw ang mga iyan! Their signatures are all over the paper trail in most cases involving ill-gotten wealth. Dummy corporations, on top of and/or alongside other dummy or shell corporations formed by them, have themselves listed as incorporators, or are under the names of persons who don’t exist, or have addresses that are nowhere to be found or that are in vacant lots, empty houses, abandoned warehouses, etc. The most brazen of all, these amorphous dummies are even said to be “residing” in their law offices and can be reached only through them—as if to serve notice to the curious that they would have to get past them to be anywhere near their thieving clients’ bank accounts!

And what has the IBP done to rid itself of the ill repute that such sleazy shysters have brought upon the entire organization? What has it done to remind lawyers that more than the need to satisfy their greed, the nobility of the profession should be zealously upheld? Have there been disciplinary actions for malpractice against such scumbags?

None—because the IBP is run by the same cabal of scheming schmucks! Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno spoke not only for herself but also for the nation when she said: “It is the duty of this court to promote honesty and integrity in public service” (“SC scolds Binay lawyers for ‘wrong doctrine’,” Front Page, 4/22/15), when she dressed down lawyers who allow themselves to be used by crooks as instruments of corruption and all kinds of skullduggery!

But personally, we prefer to paraphrase Shakespeare’s character in Henry VI: The first thing we do to make an honest nation out of us, let’s kill all the lawyers! Hallelujah!

—ROGELIO S. CANDELARIO, [email protected]