THE Supreme Court has disbarred a Cebuano lawyer over the unauthorized use of his client’s property as collateral for his bail bond in 2011.
The Supreme Court en banc ordered the name of Luis Fernan Diores, Jr. removed from the Roll of Attorneys “effective immediately” after he was found guilty of deceit and violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility, and willful disobedience to a lawful order.
“This, together with his willful disobedience of court orders and his act of using (his client’s) property as guaranty for his bail bond outside the criminal cases wherein he was authorized, cements his utter unfitness to continue exercising his duties as a lawyer,” the SC ruled.
The case stemmed from the complaint on Feb. 2, 2011 filed by Roman Dela Rosa Verano, who accused Diores of deceit, malpractice, gross ignorance of the law and violation of the lawyer’s oath.
Verano claimed that Diores used his property to secure bail bonds relative to about 61 cases of estafa and violation of Batas Pambansa 22 against Diores.
Last April 11, 2006, Verano executed a special power of attorney in favor of Diores, authorizing the latter to use his property as guaranty to obtain bail for his criminal cases.
But Verano was surprised when he learned that Diores executed a memorandum of agreement with the Visayan Surety and Insurance Corp. to use his property as guarantee to obtain bail bonds for his 61 cases of estafa and violations of Batas Pambansa 22, which penalizes the issuance of bad checks.
Verano said he did not authorize Diores to enter into any memorandum to use his property as collateral for bail.
In 2009, Judge Ester Veloso of the Regional Trial Court Branch 6 found Diores guilty of six counts of estafa through false pretenses and fraudulent means punishable by Art. 315 (2) (a) of the Revised Penal Code. He had engaged in a Ponzi scheme. Diores failed to file any comment, despite notice.
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines later issued a recommendation report that found Diores guilty of deceit in violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility.
It also recommended Diores’s disbarment.
In the ruling, the SC adopted IBP’s recommendation “to protect the trust and confidence of the people in this noble profession.”
It also cited Diores’s conviction of estafa through false pretenses and fraudulent means under Article 315(2)(a) of the Revised Penal Code.
“Such conviction simply shows his criminal tendency to defraud and deceive other people into remitting to him their hard-earned money, which the legal profession condemns in the strongest terms,” the SC ruled. (GMD)