IBP hits Santiago over insults

HE may be at fault, but private prosecutor Vitaliano Aguirre has earned some sympathy from Cebu’s legal community.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu City chapter will submit a resolution condemning Sen. Miriam Santiago’s insults directed at the prosecution panel during the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“We’ve decided that there will be an official stand. We in the IBP express disgust over Santiago’s actuations,” said IBP Cebu City chapter president Earl Bonachita.

Santiago blew her top after Aguirre covered his ears during another lecture delivered by the senator on the prosecution.

Santiago berated the prosecution panel and called them gago (stupid) during last Wednesday’s proceedings.

Bonachita said the resolution will be submitted to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Santiago and Aguirre.

He said senator-judges should not use “intemperate language since it has no place in any court.”

“There have been numerous decisions in the Supreme Court saying that when a magistrate uses intemperate and insulting language, that will take away the respect that is supposed to be due to that judge and it is self-destructive,” he said.

Bonachita said while Aguirre was disrespectful for covering his ears, they understand why because Santiago has been lambasting the prosecution panel for many days already.

Aguirre said he couldn’t tolerate the senator’s “shrill voice.”

The impeachment court then cited him for contempt but has yet to impose sanctions on him.

“We in the IBP Cebu City Chapter, will express our disgust over the manner by which Senator Santiago has been using such undesirable language,” Bonachita said.

Associate Justice Gabriel Ingles of the Court of Appeals said the use of abusive language by magistrates can be sanctioned.

“It is basic. In the search for truth, the judge and counsel are co-participants. When you become a judge, you do not get a license to become a tyrant,” he said.

Ingles said magistrates are required to give due courtesy to lawyers.

For his part, Sen. Manuel Villar said he understood Santiago’s outburst.

“It is important that the court be respected. If there is a lawyer who could not stand to hear the statements then he has the freedom to leave,” he said.

Villar, who was then House Speaker during the impeachment of former president Joseph Estrada, said impeaching the president was “100 percent more difficult” than impeaching a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

He also said he doesn’t believe that the House or Senate should be subservient to the president.

“I’ve proven it during Estrada’s impeachment,” Villar said. With reporter Marian Z. Codilla