Saturday, December 15, 2007 Editorials: IBP’s stance on lawyer’s case
THE Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu City chapter may not investigate after all lawyer Gines Abellana, that is, if its president Briccio Boholst will have his way.
That means the IBP’s former president, Democrito Barcenas, needs to sharpen his arguments if he wants the group’s officers to listen to his call to probe his colleague.
Bohost, in a radio dyLA interview, considers as hearsay the police claim linking Abellana to a bribe try so a client’s unbailable case would be reduced to a bailable one.
Investigation
Critics, however, consider Boholst view as like putting the cart before the horse: conclusions on the Abellana case should be arrived at only after a probe, not before it.
Abellana himself bristles at an IBP investigation even as he turned the table on the policemen by accusing them of inducing his client to cough money to settle the case.
But whether the IBP Cebu City chapter will dare to investigate one of its own or not, the Abellana case has placed the organization’s officers in an awkward position.
Second time
What makes the case more compelling is that Abellana’s name also cropped up years ago in a bribery incident involving then assistant city prosecutor Mary Ann Castro.
The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas investigated Castro but passed on to the IBP the task of investigating Abellana; nothing much happened despite the fuss, though.
Of course, it would be unfair to immediately put two and two together and declare Abellana guilty on the basis of a previous incident; for all we know he could be clean.
Which is why there are those who favor an IBP probe on Abellana not to establish guilt but to give him a chance to clear the air surrounding his involvement in the incident.
Consistency
Besides, there’s the issue of consistency from an organization that, like the Catholic church, is not averse to making a stand on concerns even outside its sphere.
The Abellana case offers the IBP a chance to show it is also tending to its yard.
There’s still the worry, though, that, like in the previous bribery incident, this case will suffer the fate described by this Cebuano phrase: mahug sa linaw, dayon katunaw.
