Wednesday, November 15, 2006 Malilong: Mayor should not get personal with lawyers By Frank Malilong Jr. The Other Side
Ronnie Alcano’s triumph in the recent World Pool Championship (WPC) in Manila may have come as a surprise to most people but not to the world’s greatest cue master.
Three years ago, Efren “Bata” Reyes predicted that Alcano will be “the next big star” from the Philippines and glowingly praised him by saying that among promising Filipino players, only Alcano plays like him. Ironically, it was Alcano who gave Reyes the boot in the WPC.
Reyes paid the ultimate tribute in an interview posted in October 2003 in Azbilliards.com. Here is an extract from the interview:
“AZB: There are so many good players coming over to the States from the Philippines. Who do you think is the next big star coming from there?
“Efren: There are many young promising players in the Philippines like Lee Van Corteza, Dennis Orcullo and Warren Kiamco but of all the players, I think Ronnie Alcano is the one who has more or less adopted my style of play.”
Not being a billiards player, I am not familiar with playing style but I did notice, as I’m sure many others did, that Alcano is not only toothless like Reyes, he is also just as reticent. Incidentally, Alcano also professes that he idolizes Reyes. That should explain the supposed similarity in their style of play and their state of dental health.
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Mayor Tomas Osmeńa displayed admirable humility in admitting that he over-reacted in calling “dumb” the proposal of Regional Police Director Silverio Alarcio Jr. to impose a gun ban during the Asean summit. It was not fair, the mayor was supposed to have said.
I wish the mayor were as charitable and as quick to make amends in his condemnation of lawyers. The profession admittedly has its share of bad eggs (which one doesn’t?) but to lump all of them as coddlers of criminals is the same as saying that all mayors are rapists because a former colleague is serving a prison term for rape.
There may be lawyers who have made a career of defending the accused, including those charged with violation of the dangerous drugs law, but they are neither coddlers nor protectors, just professionals doing their job.
The mayor should also have considered that for every attorney who represents the accused, there is another one, if not more, on the other side working to send the accused to jail. How can a profession that works for opposing sides be condemned as favoring one side?
Come on, mayor. Lawyers, like columnists, ask questions, some of which may be unsettling, if not unpleasant, such as those that seek to elicit an explanation on the series of unsolved killings in the city. All that the lawyers wanted to know was whether or not you know something about them.
You could just have answered that yes, you do or no, you don’t or you couldn’t recall. There was no need to get personal.
