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Sunday, January 05, 2003
Blast may help in Marapao case: de Guzman
By Charles Raymond Maxey
THE Barangay Legal Aid Support Team (Blast) reiterated Saturday its commitment to render legal assistance to anybody or handle cases for as long as the client meets its criteria, including that of Atty. Abundio "Abe" Marapao's case.
But former Davao City mayor Benjamin C. de Guzman, one of the prime movers of Blast, explained that professional ethics prevent the group from immediately dipping its fingers into the case.
De Guzman, in a statement, said that Blast could not just enter the Marapao case "like an uninvited guest, as it is possible his family may prefer a particular attorney or group of lawyers."
Aside from this, the former mayor said that it is the City Prosecutor's Office (CPO), not private practitioners or Blast, which has the responsibility of prosecuting criminal cases.
The fact that authorities have yet to apprehend and identify a suspect in the Marapao case also prevents Blast from handling the case.
Marapao was shot by one of three gunmen last December 30 while cleaning his car near his office along the Davao Medical School Drive in Bajada.
The lawyer survived the attack but had to be operated on for eight hours.
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Davao City Chapter headed by Atty. Ramon Edison Batacan immediately condemned the assault.
"Notwithstanding all the foregoing matters that restrict Blast from immediately engaging itself in the Marapao case, our organization will always be ready to render legal assistance to whomsoever needs it as along as the client meets our criteria consisting of the means and merit tests, and this includes Atty. Abundio Marapao's case," de Guzman said.
"In this sense, in special cases Blast need not be hamstrung or immobilized by self-imposed limitations, simply because the imperatives of public interest, public safety and the public good will always be paramount in a civilized society," he added.
Blast was actually responding to the challenge hurled by Sun Star Davao in its January 3, 2003 editorial entitled "Marapao, good showcase for Blast."
"Considering the crime's grave implications on the law profession and dispensation of justice itself, Marapao should be considered a special case, wherein Blast is not hamstrung by limitations at its name suggests," read part of the editorial.
"First things first, however. Amidst the unsolved killings that litter our streets nowadays, we hope, nay demand, that assailants of Atty. Marapao be immediately brought to the bar of justice, otherwise the daily murders that abound or city do not distinguish anymore between the supposed drug pushers, cellphone snatchers, youthful gang members and the law-abiding citizens, professionals and graft-busters like Atty. Abundio Marapao," de Guzman emphasized.
"Apropos, we can include those murdered due to mistaken identity and those actually killed by the assassins for personal or mercenary reasons, but who ostensibly announce that the victims were drug pushers, snatchers and gang members," he added.
(January 5, 2003 issue)
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