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Saturday, April 23, 2005
Espinoza: Unresolved issues
By Elias L. Espinoza
DOUBTS. The 10th national convention of lawyers under the auspices of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) ended yesterday in Baguio City under a cloud of doubts on some unresolved issues.
It theme, “Alleviating Poverty and Resolving the Fiscal Crisis: Challenges for the Legal System,” was more than fitting vis-à-vis the present economic crisis this government is facing.
The four-day assembly included two-day lectures on the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education.
It also pounded on the issue of poverty and justice, conveniently forgetting that the increased legal or court fees have become additional burdens to litigants regardless of their social status.
The last few days of the term of IBP national president Anselmo Cadiz Jr. have been hounded by the deliberate failure of his board to perform its moral and legal obligation to question the legality or constitutionality of Republic Act (RA) 9227. (Cadiz’s term ends on June 30.)
RA 9227 authorizes the Supreme Court (SC) to raise the remuneration or allowances of judges and employees of the judiciary, and engendered the increase in filing fees and other court fees in the process.
The IBP Cebu and Cebu City chapters were instrumental in calling the attention of the IBP national officers and the judiciary when the two chapters jointly passed a resolution decrying the unannounced increase in filing fees and new court fees.
In answer to the call of different IBP chapters that was initiated by Cebu, the IBP board of governors led by Cadiz filed last Sept. 21 a petition questioning the constitutionality of RA 9227 with the Supreme Court.
To add drama to the petition, the national officers marched to Congress and staged a short rally in its lobby. In the same breath, Cadiz issued a memorandum to all IBP chapters to stage a nationwide protest that all chapters obligingly did.
What the IBP chapter officers did not, however, know was that the board of governors, with the opposition of two, voted to withdraw the petition questioning the constitutionality of RA 6227, without the courtesy of informing the different IBP chapter officers.
Worse, according to a reliable information, the national IBP did not file a motion to withdraw but merely wrote the SC sometime last January through Cadiz.
Within six days from receipt of the letter-request, the source said, the SC dismissed the petition. What made matters worse was that Cadiz did not inform the board during their meeting on March 11 that he received the SC’s resolution on March 9.
The members of the board of governors who opposed the withdrawal lost the opportunity to file a motion for reconsideration since they only learned of the SC’s resolution dismissing the petition after 15 days from receipt.
The 35 chapters of the IBP all over the country passed a resolution questioning and protesting the action of the board. The distaste was apparent during the convention since the concerned national IBP officials distanced themselves from protesting chapter officers.
While the SC’s resolution in favor of the petition leaves so much to be desired, most lawyers believe that a favorable resolution could also resolve the issue on the constitutionality of RA 9279, which authorizes the Department of Justice (DOJ) to collect fees for every criminal case filed before the office of the prosecutor.
Even abhorrent was the speech of Senate President Franklin Drilon on award’s night last Thursday, wherein he took pride in being instrumental in the passage of RA 9227 and RA 9279.
Perhaps, the good senator did not realize the ill effects of these two laws on the litigants and the litigation lawyers.
Yes, the two laws may have improved the lot of the judges and the court employees but sadly at the expense of the litigants, poor or rich.
Like SC Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide Jr., Senator Drilon, in his speech read by Justice Adolfo Azcuna during the opening of the convention, challenged the lawyers to offer free legal services.
Perhaps unknown to them, we litigation lawyers have been providing pro bono services to indigent litigants, perhaps more than those in big law firms that boast of their influence.
The claim that the Judicial Reform Program makes justice accessible to the poor is simply hollow, if not sugar-coated, since the ill effects of RA 9227 and RA 9279 have stung the litigants and lawyers.
(April 23, 2005 issue)
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