Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
Militant women’s party-list group Gabriela on Friday expressed grave concern on Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s pronouncements about his extramarital affairs and his implication that all other lawyers in the country might be disbarred for such act, calling it a “reckless generalization.”
“It casts unnecessary intrigue on the legal profession which is irrelevant to the main issue that Speaker Alvarez is in,” Gabriela said in a statement.
“As defender of women’s rights, we express grave concern as to how Speaker Alvarez flaunts his extramarital affairs as something ordinary and acceptable. It reeks of machismo unbecoming of a public servant, more so of the Speaker of the House of Representatives,” it added.
The group said that the “power struggle” between Speaker Alvarez and Rep. Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo should not be primarily linked to the spat between their girlfriends.
The girlfriends’ fight allegedly triggered a rift between the two congressmen that compelled Speaker Alvarez to file a complaint before the Ombudsman against Floirendo in connection with a graft-ridden deal of the latter’s banana firm.
READ: Nothing personal: Speaker denies ‘fighting GFs’ led to case vs solon
Alvarez, a lawyer, said he is unfazed by a possible disbarment case against him for having a relationship outside marriage.
“Kung mayroon silang nakikitang ethical issue, i-disbar ako for having a girlfriend, edi go ahead (If they see any ethical issue and they want to disbar me for having a girlfriend, then go ahead),” Alvarez said.
He also joked that there will be no more lawyers in the country if lawyers would be disbarred for having affairs.
READ: Alvarez admits having GF, unfazed by any disbarment case
Gabriella called on the public to “focus on the deeper underlying political and economic motives” that are at play in the issue. JE/rga
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