integrated bar of the philippines

SORRY if this piece will hurt the sensitivities of some of our lawyer friends. But we feel it’s necessary to let this out because we know that those engaged in corruption in the government, or the ones corrupting government officials, are thinking they can afford the services of some astute and shrewd legal luminaries who are just too willing to wiggle them out of the rut that they could get into should cases be filed against them.

Yes, yesterday, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), the country’s premier association of lawyers, practicing or not, issued a statement condemning the prevalence of ghost and substandard flood control projects.

It added that those “guni-guni” and substandard projects are not just “isolated abuses” but part of a deeper corruption problem in the government.

The statement of the IBP also clearly manifested the group’s belief that corruption lingered for so long because there is apparent connivance among contractors, some lawmakers, and government officials – specifically those from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

It is heart-warming to hear or learn that lawyers through their organization, the IBP, are showing utmost concern for the existing situation where government projects are made, milking cows of the corrupt officials.

It also assuages the hurt being felt by the suffering Filipinos that here comes the group of lawyers calling corruption attendant in the flood control projects all over the country as “eroding public trust in government”, and a blatant “disregard of the nation’s future.”

Ironically, however, how many of the IBP lawyer-members are just too willing to serve as legal counsel for known corrupt government officials or contractors for as long as their asking price is met, or are being offered a juicy lawyer’s fee by such clients that is far beyond their expectations?

And to think that they are well aware of the wrongdoings of their “walk-in” contractor or government official clients!

Are these IBP members leaning securely on the legal dictum that anyone accused of crimes is deemed “innocent until proven otherwise” in the court of law, even if they know the client is guilty of the crime charged?

Will any of the organization’s members be bold enough to turn down an invitation for legal services by individuals or juridical entities if they are certain of the accused’s involvement in any crime, specifically anomalies in government projects?

Pray, tell us?

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Third district councilor Alberto Ungab surprisingly justified the damage incurred on a portion of the flood control dike in Matina Gravahan just across the Bankerohan Public Market.

We say “surprisingly” because it is clear that Matina Gravahan is in the heart of the first congressional district of Davao City. Thus, it should have been any of the first district Congressman, the acting mayor and vice mayor of the city, or the councilors from the first district who should have come out with an explanation, or anyone from the dike’s contractors.

But again, why was it Councilor Abet and not anyone from the first district? Besides, we are also at a loss when the third district alderman claimed that the damage was only “normal” because it was hit by a log carried down from the upstream by raging water during one of those very strong rains hitting some areas in the upper sector of the city.

We can only ask, “Are there still any logs or remnants thereof, left these days, when even the trunks of trees barely three to five years old are cut down by those engaged in the mass production of charcoal to satisfy the needs of their growing clientele in the downtown areas?

But whatever, the fact that the portion of the dike was destroyed by a log is symptomatic of the very low quality of the project implementation.

That an inspection by either the District Engineer in charge or by the City Engineer’s Office has to be conducted is already a “must” at this early time.

Let not any untoward incident overtake such inspection if the DPWH’s District Engineering Office, or the city engineer for that matter, if these two entities hope to clear up their deteriorating image these days.