MANILA -- Two anti-crime groups on Thursday asked that Felisberto Verano Jr., lawyer for the so-called “Alabang Boys” arrested in drug operations in September last year, be disbarred.

As a consequence of this controversial drug case involving three suspects from prominent families, lawmakers on Thursday said they are open to restoring the death penalty for drug traffickers.

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The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) filed a disbarment complaint with the Supreme Court (SC) against Verano, while the Citizens Crime Watch (CCW) urged the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) to subject the lawyer to a disbarment probe.

The IBP earlier said it will investigate Verano, who admitted drafting a release order for his clients Richard Brodett and Joseph Tecson, for possible disbarment once a complaint is filed.

If the IBP finds probable cause for disbarment, it will then endorse the complaint to the SC as an administrative matter. The SC will then dispose of the case accordingly.

The High Court, for its part, said it will wait for the National Bureau of Investigation’s report before taking action on Verano.

Brodett and Tecson, along with Jorge Joseph, were arrested by Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agents in two separate buy-bust operations in Cubao, Quezon City and in Alabang, Muntinlupa. They allegedly yielded 60 tablets of Ecstasy, packets of marijuana, and sachets of cocaine.

VACC chairman Dante Jimenez said Verano should be stopped from using such kind of tactics.

“What Attorney Verano has done is wrong...a grave breach of ethics,” he said.

In seeking Verano’s disbarment, Jimenez said the lawyer committed two "grave mistakes" that will erode the public’s trust in the profession.

“The number one violation he committed is when he drafted the release order, he even admitted that, when he has no right or legal authority to do so. And second, when he used a stationery with a letterhead of the Department of Justice in drafting the release order. That letterhead is a government property and he has no business appropriating that for his use since he is a private lawyer and not a government lawyer,” he said.

These, he said, are more than enough reason for Verano to be stricken off the lawyer’s roll.

“We will push through with the filing. A lawyer like Attorney Verano is one of the reasons why the people have lost trust in the country’s justice system,” added Jimenez.

CCW head Jose Malgar-Villegas also wants Verano removed from the IBP list.

“Our complaint before the IBP is ‘conduct unbecoming’ of a member of the bar and ‘unethical practice’,” Villegas said.

IBP president Feliciano Bautista, in a radio interview, explained that any decision they will make is only recommendatory.

“The Supreme Court has the final say,” Bautista said.

Speaker Prospero Nograles said he is open to reviving capital punishment as a way to stop the drug menace in the country.

“Personally, I am seriously considering death penalty for drug suppliers and dealers,” he said in a text message.

Muntinlupa City Rep. Rozzano Rufino said he would file a bill on January 12 seeking to impose the death penalty on drug traffickers.

“Unlike murderers or rapists who may be reformed, drug lords have the capacity to live comfortable lives in prison while business goes on. They knowingly earn from the misery of others,” he said.

Even Dangerous Drugs Board chairman Vicente “Tito” Sotto III wants to restore the death penalty on convicted drug traffickers.

Sotto said he has been lobbying for the re-imposition of the death penalty since it was repealed by the 13th Congress.

PDEA Director General Dionisio Santiago is also pushing for the return of the death penalty, but this time against drug pushers.

Santiago said the matter is “very urgent,” noting that drug use has become a “security threat” to the country./

In June 2006, President Arroyo signed the law abolishing the death penalty.

But to this time, there are still debates between those who want it and those who do not think it deters criminality.

There are also lawmakers like Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman who are not in favor of reviving the death penalty.

Lagman criticized the move as a "knee-jerk" reaction to the controversial drug case involving children of prominent families in Alabang and the dismissal of charges against them that prompted allegations that Department of Justice (DOJ) and PDEA officials were bribed. (AH/PNA/Sunnex)