State lawyers oppose OGCC merger with SolGen’s office
The proposed abolition of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) would only lead to conflict-of-interest situations for the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) which a bill seeking to abolish the OGCC and merge it with the OSG might have overlooked, according to a state lawyer.
Isabelo Gumaru, general counsel of the state-owned Philippine Export-Import Credit Agency, said majority of state lawyers had already expressed their opposition to the bill pending at the House of Representatives seeking the transfer of the OGCC to the OSG.
Cases vs GOCCs
Gumaru, a trustee of the Philippine Association of Government Corporate Lawyers, noted that the OSG, the state’s primary law firm, had been litigating cases brought against government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs), which were being represented by OGCC lawyers.
He said it would be “unethical and improper” for OSG lawyers to appear in courts as counsels for opposing parties involved in a legal tussle and that it would be a violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility of lawyers.
“If the OGCC were to be abolished, we would have a scenario wherein lawyers from the (OSG would) represent both entities involved in a legal dispute,” Gumaru said in a statement.
‘Two masters’
“The OSG cannot serve two masters. This would be like a private law firm representing the (complainant and defendants) in the same case,” he added.
Gumaru disclosed that OSG lawyers were currently litigating at least 400 cases filed by state agencies, such as the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Commission on Audit (COA), against several GOCCs, which were represented by OGCC counsels.
Should the bill become law, it would lead to a scenario in which the OSG would represent both BIR and COA and the GOCCs that the government agencies were suing.
This scenario, Gumaru said, would induce violations of ethics by lawyers of the OSG who would be tapped to represent GOCCs being sued by the government.
Such a scenario, he said, had been overlooked by the House bill.
