Cañete
A Cebuano, who was a former president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu province chapter, has had enough of the corruption plaguing the judiciary and prosecution service — enough to give up being a lawyer.
Dionisio Cañete decided to quit from being a lawyer because he could no longer tolerate “unspeakable injustices” he suffered while practicing the profession for 56 years.
Last Jan. 31, the Supreme Court granted his request to be removed from the Rolls of Attorneys and stripped him of the title and functions of being an attorney-at-law.
“Please take notice that the court en banc issued a resolution dated January 31, 2017. The court resolved to grant the Petition for Voluntary Delisting in the Roll of Attorneys filed by the petitioner,” said the High Court’s Clerk of Court Felipa Anama in a notice.
Cañete, 78, was elated when he received a copy of the notice last Wednesday and hoped that his resignation would lead to a meaningful reform and reorientation in the prosecution service and the judiciary in order to minimize corruption.
“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.
He said lawyers were aware of the ongoing corruption in the prosecution service and the judiciary but chose to remain silent.
Cañete cited the experience of a lawyer who lost a case because the opposing party had all the money to “buy” the prosecutor or the judge.
“Filing the petition was based on my disillusion, frustration, utter disappointment as well as humiliation and embarrassment inflicted by the highly unfair and brutally unjust actions of my brothers in the legal profession who are members of the prosecution and judiciary. . .,” he said.
Cañete passed the Bar Examinations in 1960 and was a member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) the next year.
In 1981, he was elected vice president of the IBP Cebu Province Chapter. The following year, he assumed the presidency when the elected president resigned and ran for an elective post.
In 1983, Cañete ran and was elected president of the IBP Cebu Province Chapter — a position he held until 1985.
At present, he is the chairman-emeritus of the World Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation.
Cañete said he was extremely disappointed when nine of the 10 cases he filed before the prosecutor’s office from 2014 to 2016 were “maliciously dismissed” even if he presented strong evidence.
Three of the nine dismissed cases were overturned by the Regional State Prosecutor. When he returned to the prosecutor’s 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 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 my own brothers in the legal profession; that there is no more logical and cogent reason for me to remain as a lawyer,” he added.