Monday, July 02, 2007 Few Davao lawyers owe annual IBP dues By Carlo P. Mallo
VERY few lawyers from Davao City are delinquent in their annual dues to the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) even as around 20,000 lawyers nationwide owe IBP their dues. Most of these lawyers are in government practice.
IBP Davao City president Manuel Quibod said there are only about 65 lawyers from Davao City who are delinquent in their payment of annual dues. The IBP national office published a list of these lawyers.
According to Quibod, some of those included in the list of Davao City could have either passed away or are already residing abroad.
"A list of delinquent lawyers appeared on a national newspaper sometime last week, but of those included in the list, only a handful are from the city,"
Quibod said.
The IBP Davao City chapter has more than 800 members.
"Lawyers who do not pay their dues to the IBP could be removed from the list, sanctions would have to be meted out," Ramon Batacan, governor of IBP Davao City, said in an interview.
While a number of lawyers in public practice are delinquent in their payments, lawyers who are into private practice are the ones that are most updated in paying their dues. "One reason is that lawyers into private practice are required to put their roll number in every pleading or motion that they submit to court," Batacan added.
Apart from ensuring that their members pay their respective dues, IBP is also planning of utilizing all its members for the speedy resolution of legal aid cases.
Instead of having the current set-up wherein one lawyer is assigned to attend to the legal aid department of the IBP, Quibod said it would be more ideal if at least one legal aid case would be assigned to one lawyer.
In his term as the newly installed IBP president for Davao City, Quibod hopes that he would be able to raise the bar of the legal profession.
