INQUIRER.net Eleksyon 2007

IBP wants Gonzalez suspended as lawyer

INQUIRER.net

Tetch Torres

MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE 2) The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) has recommended that Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez be suspended as a lawyer for one year for offering P10,000 to barangay captains in Iloilo City who ensured a sweep for the administration’s senatorial slate in the 2007 elections.

The notice of resolution, submitted to the bar confidant of the Supreme Court on Tuesday, was signed by IBP national secretary Tomas N. Prado.

The recommendation stemmed from a disbarment complaint filed before the IBP against Gonzalez by lawyer Elly Pamatong on May 1, 2007, soon after the justice secretary publicly confirmed having made the offer to the village chiefs of his hometown.

But Gonzalez said he is not worried about the IBP recommendation or the complainant of Pamatong.

"I am not worried about his [Pamatong’s] case. The complainant is a 'nut,' that's what I think he is," Gonzalez said.

He also noted that an IBP committee had already exonerated him but the decision was reversed by its Board of Governors.

The notice of resolution by the IBP Commission on Bar Discipline confirmed the reversal of the earlier recommendation of its investigation commissioner and approved “the suspension from the practice of law for one year of Attorney Raul M. Gonzalez Sr. for obstruction of the electoral process for his reprehensible conduct of openly and publicly offering P10,000 to any barrio captain in his area of political influence who can give 12-0 votes in favor of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s senatorial candidates and taking into consideration his previous professional misconduct.”

But Gonzalez said: "I would even think that the IBP has no jurisdiction over this case because this is a Comelec [Commission on Elections] case. Besides, I never even ended up giving [the] P10,000" to the Iloilo barangay captains.

"You cannot recommend my suspension without me having found guilty," he said, pointing out that the Comelec should have been the one to conduct the investigation because it is an election related case.

He added that he had been exonerated in other complaints filed before the IBP on the same issue.

Only if the Comelec found him guilty, Gonzalez said, could the IBP enter into the picture. But, he said, the Comelec took no action on the matter.

A disbarment complaint can be filed either before the Supreme Court or the IBP.

Supreme Court spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said the IBP recommendation will be forwarded to the office of the bar confidant, which will prepare the report and forward this to the high court en banc.

“If they see it sufficient, it will be affirmed but if not, they can ask the IBP for clarification. It will still depend on the appreciation of the Supreme Court en banc," Marquez said.

If the lawyer is a public official, his position will not be affected by the suspension if his duties as a public servant do not require him to be a lawyer, Marquez said.

Gonzalez said the complaint was mere harassment, recalling that, before filing the disbarment case, Pamatong had come to his office to ask that the charges filed against him for scattering spikes along EDSA be dropped.

The justice chief also said Pamatong has a pending case before a Laguna court for illegal possession of firearms.

"I told him I cannot help him. It is up to the court to decide if there is a case against him or not," he added.

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