CEBU CITY, Feb. 25 (PNA) — The Supreme Court (SC) has granted a Cebuano lawyer’s petition to strip him off his title and functions to protest the alleged corruption in the profession, particularly in the prosecution service and the judiciary.
Lawyer Dionisio Cañete was elated upon receiving on Wednesday the notice from the SC informing him that his Petition for Voluntary Delisting in the Roll of Attorneys has been granted.
“I have no regrets whatsoever. I am happy that I am now out of the profession so that I will not be in the same association with corrupt prosecutors and judges,” he said.
Cañete, 78, expressed dismay over the “unspeakable injustices” he suffered while practicing the profession for 56 years.
He said he was extremely disappointed when nine of the 10 cases he filed before the prosecutors’ office from 2014 to 2016 were “maliciously dismissed” despite having presented strong evidence.
Three of the nine dismissed cases were overturned by the Regional State Prosecutor.
When he returned to the prosecutors’ office, Cañete said the case folders of these cases could no longer be found.
The actions of prosecutors and judges, he said, convinced him that the criminal justice system in the Philippines is “like a spider’s web, wherein only the mosquitoes and flies are caught, but the wealthy and government officials simply go through it.”
“With all those cruel and brutal injustices heaped on me, I feel that being a lawyer does not anymore deserve respect and courtesy from his own brothers in the legal profession; that there is no more logical and cogent reason for me to remain as a lawyer,” he said.
Cañete said he hoped his voluntary resignation from the Roll of Attorneys would lead to a meaningful reform and reorientation in the prosecution service and the judiciary” in order to minimize corruption.
Cañete, who passed the Bar Examinations in 1960, was elected vice president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu Province chapter in 1981 and as president of the chapter in 1983.
He is the chairman emeritus of the World Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation.
