Tiglao: Diokno et al. shouldn’t just be disbarred, they should be prosecuted and thrown in jail

Rigoberto Tiglao and Chel Diokno compiled photo from Bulgar and CNN-PH (ctto)

Manila Times veteran columnist says lawyers Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno and Andre Palacios claimed they were counsels for 20 Palawan and Zambales fishermen when they filed a Writ of Kalikasan with the Supreme Court to compel government agencies to rehabilitate and protect the West Philippine Sea from “environmental damage due to poaching and other illegal activities being undertaken by Chinese nationals.”

Rigoberto Tiglao, who is also a former diplomat, said it was all a lie, a total fraud. Diokno et al. shouldn’t just be disbarred, they should be prosecuted and thrown in jail for violating the rules of court.

According to the fishermen, written in very detailed sworn testimonies, said they do not know about such a suit, in fact, they were shocked to learn that they were involved in the high-profile case suing the government thru the newspapers or were just told by their neighbors.

Tiglao added that these two lawyers violated the rules of court and should be punished for misleading the court of law. To wit:

Diokno and his accomplices did a patent violation of Section 27 of the Rules of Court No. 138, punishable by disbarment: “A member of the bar may be removed or suspended from his office as attorney by the Supreme Court for…for willfully appearing as an attorney for a party to a case without authority to do so.”

The Solicitor General should pursue criminal and disbarment cases against Diokno and his gang because of these lawyers are fraudsters, con men who lied to the Supreme Court.

These lawyers also violated Article 171 of the Revised Penal Code, which penalizes falsification. They fraudulently claimed in the petition before the high court that the fishermen were filing the kalikasan suit, and they attributed to the latter statements that they had not made.

Tiglao also noted that Diokno and his accomplices could have committed political chaos. If the Supreme Court granted their petition and ordered the Navy and other state agencies to kick out fishermen from China and Vietnam from the disputed areas in the Spratlys, this would either have led, if President Duterte followed the order, to a clash against forces of two nations or if the President refused to implement it, there would be a constitutional crisis.

They also claimed that they were representing the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) in the case. Have the country’s lawyers lost all their balls or their principles in letting their organization be used in a huge fraud, undertaken for political purposes? Are they even aware that Palacios and the two other lawyers claimed in their petition that they were representing the IBP?

The Solicitor General’s move for the case to be dismissed was based on the fishermen’s claim that they didn’t authorize Diokno et al. to be their representatives. Their agreement to withdraw the suit was legally a concurrence in the fishermen’s allegations.

Diokno claims, that the sworn affidavits of the fishermen, were fabricated by Navy lawyers. In their testimonies (in Filipino), the fishermen claimed: “Why would we file a case against those government agencies, when they have been helping us a lot in our livelihood as fishermen?”

The Zambales fishermen were even angrier as they were fooled. They said they went to IBP, Zambales chapter, to ask for assistance to stop the closure of a school and eviction of residents in their community, Sitio Kinabukasan. And not from the harassment from Chinese vessels,

The IBP representative there claimed the organization would help them if they signed a blank document with copies of their IDs, which the fishermen assumed would contain their plea for the school and the residents’ stay.

But after that, they just learned from the newspapers that they were the complainants in the “petition” to the Supreme Court involving the West Philippines Sea.

And these are not just lawyers, but officers of the IBP! Diokno is even dean of the De La Salle Law School. What example is he showing to De La Salle law students, that you can break the law if you just know-how, and are fighting for a purportedly noble cause? And Diokno even though he should be a senator of the Republic?

Tiglao also added that he was already suspicious of Diokno and his gang when they filed the suit in April, suspecting them to be using the fishermen and misrepresenting them, as part of the Yellow and Reds’ campaign to pressure Duterte to undertake a belligerent stand against the Chinese.

Diokno who has associated with Communist Party cadres, they didn’t even think that there was something wrong in putting words in the mouths of poor people, making them appear to be going against the very government agencies that were helping them, using them as cannon fodder for his camp’s siege of the Republic.

After all, this has been the usual practice of the Left, who claim to represent the working classes and speak for them so much, they don’t really need to consult with them.

Government using this obvious case of fraud should tell the communists, they can no longer do this.

Source: Manila Times