Over lunch at the office last Wednesday, we watched the live coverage of the Senate Committee on Public Order’s hearing on the death of Atio Castillo.
With me was our deputy resident representative, a lawyer, and my head executive assistant, a former media person who worked for several years as information chief of a prominent senator.
The revelations of Chief Supt. Jiggs Coronel, which exposed a meeting of the Aegis Juris fratmen after the death of their hazing victim at the Novotel, along with the text message exchange trail which clearly indicated a cover-up operation were too shocking, to say the least.
Even the committee chairman, the normally imperturbable Senator Ping Lacson, was visibly disturbed. The facial expression of Senator Migs Zubiri during the hearing was pained.
And yet, watching the hardened faces of many of the fraternity “brothers” of Atio Castillo as they kept their silence, or prevaricated even, invoking their right against self-incrimination even on such matter-of-fact questions as one’s position in the fraternity, one was left aghast and asking what kind of lawyers these fratmen were or about to become.
Atio’s father was beside himself in crushing devastation. “The boy we had cherished, who brought us so much pride and joy, he had many dreams. He wanted to be a lawyer, a senator, and even justice of the Supreme Court,” Horacio Castillo Jr. could only rue.
Lacson, himself no stranger to the hazing traditions of the Philippine Military Academy, shuddered at the coverup attempts, led as they were by lawyers of the fraternity members.
He thought it unbecoming of the lawyers to help cover up the crime and it was “disgusting” for the members to leave their fraternity brother Castillo in that condition.
The mere fact that they asked John Paul Solano who was not with them during the final initiation rites to bring the fallen Atio to Chinese General Hospital some two kilometers away, instead of the UST Hospital of their own school which was just meters and minutes away is by itself evidence of a coverup for an “accidental” death.
Was covering up for unintended consequence instinctive for those schooled in the law? Was the instinct to protect oneself from possible prosecution too overpowering even for a lawyer’s conscience?
And when the instinct to protect each other elevates itself into the realm of planning a coverup to the point of hiding and obliterating whatever evidence there was, isn’t that too much even for a lawyer’s conscience?
I asked our lawyer-deputy for the oath of office that they take upon passing the bar, and clearly, it states: “I will do no falsehood, nor consent to the doing of any in court”.
Furthermore, a lawyer swears that he or she “will not wittingly or willingly promote or sue any groundless, false or unlawful suit, or give aid nor consent to the same”.
Yet there they were, in the “court of the people,” if one may call the Senate hearing as one, clamming up in obvious conspiracy, uttering falsehoods, with the consent of some of their elders even. Knowing that it would be the courts of law that would eventually decide their fate, hiding or destroying evidence early on would in the end provide them legal lifeline. More like Mafiosi than advocates of truth and justice.
Thus did the elder Castillo state: “Naaawa rin ako sa kanila. Kasi their lives are over. Do you think magiging lawyers pa sila?”
Well, stranger things have happened in this benighted land where law is easily bent in its practice, often utilized as the refuge of clear scoundrels, and conscience can be obliterated by “mental reservation or purpose of evasion.”
Such a sad observation upon the state of the legal profession in our country.
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Last week brought some good news, though.
Not only were Isnilon Hapilon and Omar Maute neutralized, but even their Malaysian financier and ringleader as well, Mahmud Ahmad. The Marawi tragedy is over for all intents and purposes. The IS has been beaten in Raqqa as well.
With continued vigilance and international cooperation, this scourge upon civilization should be put to a decisive end.
Back home, Conde Nast adjudged Boracay as still the best island get-away, with Cebu and Palawan not far behind. But this should not get our tourism officials as well as the Aklan provincial government complacent.
The island is beset by so many problems borne by congestion beyond the 1,100 hectare island’s carrying capacity. It is high time a more comprehensive development of the neighboring beaches both in Aklan and Romblon, was put into place to complement Boracay as our prime attraction.
And alternative island destinations properly planned, the infrastructure laid out, good for the next 30 years or more, such as Siargao with 12 times more land than Boracay, or Coron, Culion, Romblon, Camotes, Guiuan, Calayan, Siquijor, and so many other beautiful sites.
And good news as well is the Naia having “graduated” from the ranks of the world’s worst airports, a national shame for many years during which PNoy dug in for his relative who allowed the airport, sadly named after PNoy’s father himself, decrepit and disgraceful.
Each time I go to the airport, I get pleasantly surprised at the improvements, from cleaner toilets to shorter downtimes from taxiing to taking off. There are to be sure a lot of details that need fixing, but it’s manager, Ed Monreal, heir to a monumental mess, is certainly doing something good. Finally, we see direction. Finally, we are getting quick action.