“Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.” –Lao Tzu
From the Iloilo Provincial Capitol, where the local trial courts were located prior to the construction of the Iloilo Hall of Justice, located along Bonifacio Drive in the City Proper district, a human rights lawyer from San Joaquin asked me to escort him to his office in the YMCA buildings along Iznart Street, which was a five minute walk. This lawyer, tagged as a New People’s Army sympathizer, was aware of being targeted for kidnapping and summary execution during the early years of the President Corazon Aquino administration, several months after former President Ferdinand Marcos was deposed; some of his colleagues had been kidnapped and murdered following the latter’s ouster.
The Ilonggo human rights lawyer held my hand tightly as we crossed the street – his eyes were alert as a night owl and I did not leave him until we reached the YMCA.
God bless the soul of that human rights lawyer, who once surprised his colleagues at Iloilo chapter of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) after delivering a prayer during an oath-taking ceremony at Hotel Del Rio, despite being tagged by the military as a “communist.”
That lawyer, who died of natural causes in the early 90s, would have made a great lawmaker had he beat Oscar ‘Oca’ Garin, Sr. for Congress. If he were alive and serving in the House of Representative, he would have opposed H.R. 2086, filed by assistant majority leader, 1-ANG EDUKASYON partylist Rep. Salvador Belaro, Jr., and Oriental Mindoro first district Rep. Doy Leachon, which directed legislative committees on justice, along with good government and public accountability, to probe the arrest of three lawyers associated with an anti-drug operation at a Makati City bar last week.
The human rights lawyer used to say lawyers like him “are not above the law.”
“If there are good lawyers, there are also bad lawyers,” he intoned. “We are not above the law; if we violate the law, we must also be punished like ordinary citizens.”
The lawyer was opposed to any special treatment provided for officers of the court who commit malfeasance or a crime punishable under the penal code.
The resolution comes on the heels of three lawyers being detained earlier this month on alleged interference with the implementation of a search warrant at the Time in Manila bar in Makati City, where police reportedly found illegal drugs. The lawyers were eventually released after 24 hours.
The lawmakers called the arrest “highly irregular considering that the ones arrested are lawyers, who are officers of the court, and who [were] only at the scene of the raid to perform their duties as counsel [for] the said establishment.” While not suggesting the lawmakers were treating the three detained lawyers as “sacred cows,” they insisted a need for new legislation, amending current policies, or coming up with new administrative rules.
Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Oscar Albayalde, meanwhile, defended the arrest, saying, police would not spare anyone who violates the law.
Belaro advised the three lawyers to file charges against the National Police Commission (Napolcom), Makati Regional Trial Court, and Office of the Bar Confidant.
“For administrative sanctions against those Makati City police officers, administrative cases can be filed before the National Police Commission or the People’s Law Enforcement Board,” he said.
The three must cite violations to specific provisions of the PNP operations manual and standard operating procedures on crime scene investigations and criminal procedure, among others, the lawmaker stated.
“Lawyers are also deemed as persons in authority and thus the possibility of a criminal charge for direct assault and other applicable crimes may also be explored, plus suits for damages against the Makati City police,” Belaro added. “The aggrieved lawyers can file counter-charges before the Makati City regional trial court.”
He also proposed “suspension or disbarment cases could also be filed against them before the Office of the Bar Confidant” if any of the arresting officers were lawyers.
If those arrested and detained weren’t IBP colleagues, would Belaro and Leachon have filed the resolution? What is so special about those arrested lawyers?/WDJ