Lawyer in trouble for ‘imbecile’ remark

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) is on the spotlight again not because of corruption but because one of its employees, lawyer Mandy Mercado Anderson, called Speaker Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez an “imbecile” on her Facebook account.

Anderson is the chief of staff of Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon.

The upstart Anderson, reportedly chosen by Faeldon because she is a bar topnotcher, called Alvarez an imbecile over the Speaker’s threat to abolish the Court of Appeals over the issue of “Ilocos 6.”

Alvarez, a complete gentleman, said Anderson was just airing her opinion.

“This is a democracy, bai, and she is entitled to her opinion,” he told this columnist.

“Besides, she’s a woman and it’s not in my nature to quarrel with a woman,” the Speaker said, winking.

However, Alvarez’s colleagues are not taking Anderson’s mudslinging sitting down because it supposedly put the entire House of Representatives in a bad light.

Deputy Speaker Miro Quimbo said Anderson could be disbarred over her misbehavior.

Already, a report about her faking attendance in a seminar for all lawyers in the BOC has come out: It was her secretary who allegedly attended on her behalf and signed her name.

An administrative case against Anderson is pending with the Integrated Bar of the Philippines because of her alleged lying.

If she could lie over a simple matter such as her seminar attendance, she could be dishonest in other things, said a congressman who didn’t want his name mentioned here.

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Makati City Prosecutor Jorge Galvez Catalan is the country’s acting prosecutor general.

Justice Secretary Vit Aguirre appointed him acting chief of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Prosecution Service after Victor Sepulveda filed an indefinite leave.

Catalan is a graduate of the San Beda College of Law and member of the Lex Talionis fraternity whose prominent members are Aguirre and President Digong.

Catalan, a government prosecutor of 29 years, has vowed to expedite the resolution of cases pending with the DOJ while he is acting prosecutor general.

My sources in the DOJ say Catalan would make an excellent prosecutor general should the President make his appointment permanent.

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The newly appointed Philippine ambassador to the United States, Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez, would make an excellent envoy since he once worked with a lobby group in Washington, DC, that lobbied for Philippine government interests.

The dapper Babe was a reporter and newscaster at the defunct Kanlaon Broadcasting Service’s Channel 9 from 1970 to 1982, after which he migrated to the United States.

He came back to the Philippines to work as a columnist for the Philippine Star.

Babe’s uncle, Eduardo Z. Romualdez, was Philippine ambassador to Washington from 1971 to 1982.