Wednesday, August 01, 2007 Malilong: Alex Tolentino’s zeal By Frank Malilong The Other Side
I used to play basketball for our chapter of the Integrated Bar when I was younger. We were mostly invited to do the opening act on the championship night of a barangay tournament with usually the team from the Cebu clergy on the opposite end of the court.
Most, if not all, of all us were not equipped to pursue a career in basketball (which was why, I think, we were lawyers or priests) but what we lacked in skills, we made up for in spirit. All our games were thus fiercely, even if not well, fought but one stood out because it was particularly ugly and could have developed into something that we would later be sorry for, if not ashamed about, were it not for the intervention of the proverbial cooler heads.
The day after the game, I told my officemates about what happened. Before I could finish the narration, however, they said almost in unison: “Way duda kinsay sad-an. Mga abogado gyud.” (“There’s no doubt as to who was at fault. It could only be the lawyers.”)
My mother had the same take although from another angle when she learned about what happened. “Mga pari gud to sila” (“They were priests”), she said.
Of course, Mama, bless her soul, was raised in an era when priests wore habits and were not heard to allow anyone to kiss any part of their body except their hand.
But truly, your reputation precedes you.
I’m not trying to pit one against the other but while it was easy for my officemates and my mother to make a judgment call in that sorry episode with the priests, can the same be said of the case between policemen and lawyers?
Police officer Jerybel Lerio says lawyer Alex Tolentino slandered her and a fellow policeman and then stole the files of her case against Tolentino’s client.
Tolentino says the claims are exaggerated. From the sideline, prosecutor Raul Cristoria taunts: Tolentino was showing off to prove to his clients that every centavo that he received from them was well-deserved.
Alex is no ordinary lawyer; he is the immediate past president of the Cebu City Chapter of the Integrated Bar. I am sure he is familiar with Canon 19 of the lawyers’ Code of Professional Responsibility which says: “A lawyer shall represent his client with zeal within the bounds of the law.”
Tolentino was upset because he felt that his clients had been short-changed after he learned that the information had been prepared and was ready to be filed in court even if he had not yet received a copy of the resolution of Cristoria. Could someone be indignant and grandstanding at the same time?
I see nothing wrong in Tolentino’s asking to be allowed to refer the matter to Cristoria’s superior before it was elevated to the court. That was zeal. And. if I were in his place, I would have done exactly what Tolentino did when he was denied this basic act of courtesy which would not harm the prosecution’s case anyway: snatch the case folder and run with it to Sellon’s office.
About the “mamlantiray” comment, that was indeed unfortunate. But in the heat of passion and anger, things of that sort could happen. And isn’t the balm of a clear conscience enough to assuage the pain of a public officer who is unfairly accused?
