Lawyer George Erwin Garcia, one true ‘abogado de campanilla’

Atty. George Erwin Garcia (left), Sen. Grace Poe-Llamanzares’s legal counsel with Atty Pearlito Campanilla (right), LEAP lead convenor.

Dick the butcher, a character no one remembers, utters that memorable line in Shakespeare’s most famous play entitled “Henry the Sixth”: “.. The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

Ruefully and mockingly said, it is often misconstrued as the ordinary person’s frustration over a lawyer’s abdication of his oath to commit no falsehood, support the democratic processes and conduct himself as a person with moral scruples according to his best knowledge and discretion.

Contrary to popular belief, this line however underscores the important role that lawyers play in a society giving reasons for villains, hooligans and criminals to meditate and conspire for their assassination and elimination, said Atty. Pearlito B. Campanilla, lead convenor of LEAP or Lawyer’s for an Election Advancing the People’s will.

The recently decided disqualification case against Senator Grace Poe Llamanzares, which left most Filipinos cliffhanging for several months, has brought back the legal profession into the limelight. The important role of the lawyer in shaping our history and ensuring that the will of the people be heard in accordance to that honored principle “..Salus populi est suprema lex (the welfare of the people is the supreme law)..,” dominantly caught the public’s attention.

At the center of the fracas who fought tooth and nail to bring home the bacon so to speak is an up and coming young but very exceptional lawyer in the person of Atty. George Erwin Garcia, continued Atty. Campanilla.

“To some who does not know him yet, Atty. Garcia is one of the best election lawyers nowadays who is sought after by candidates in the national and local elections. His list of clients compose of former presidents, incumbent and former senators and congressmen, governors, plus an endless numbers of sitting and past mayors and politicians,” said Campanilla.

“Lawyers often patronizes and treat condescendingly their brothers in profession. It’s that sort of alpha male thing among lawyers. But exception is the case of Atty. Garcia who is revered and respected by our peers. Rare are the lawyers who can stand up in oral argument before the Supreme Court or in the Commission on Elections,” he added.

“Lawyers shy away from this proceeding for it is psychologically stressful, mentally demanding and physically tiring. It is reminiscent of our law studying days where you can burn the midnight oil throughout the night and yet still get chastised for not giving the correct answer in a recitation,” Campanilla said.

“Only in an en banc oral argument before the Supreme Court or the Commission on Election, the difficulty is manifold. Unlike in a typical recitation in law school where you have to study for a specific subject, the questions asked in an oral argument concerns everything under the sun,” he pointed out.

“But, Atty. Garcia slugged it out at the Commission on Elections for several long hours, standing without a notebook or laptop computer to guide him, energetically verbalizing cases and laws by memory, supplying names, places, dates and even passport numbers from thin air and eloquently answering the questions of the magistrates calmly in a scholarly, astute and erudite fashion.

“For hours, he lectured on applicable Supreme Court decisions, discussing their minute details and flawlessly deliberating on why it should be applied in favor of Senator Grace Poe Llamanzares,” said Campanilla.
“Yet, unlike some of the lawyers there who attended, Atty. Garcia carried himself not in a flamboyant and pompous way which caused himself to be endeared by the crowd including the members of the media, especially the female ones, who were present. His boyish and low profile image betrays his character as an academic scholar and a legal expert,” opined Campanilla.

“The case of the Senator Grace Poe Llamanzares is a novel and a very important one. It contained issues and controversies which will be hammered in marbles and granite in so far as legal principles and doctrines are concerned. It will be the subject of countless hours of debates by legal scholars, luminaries, lawyers and law students for the years to come.

“It will contribute much to the making of our history as a nation and as a people. I am glad that Atty. Garcia generously and magnanimously shared his expertise, knowledge and skill on this matter. He is certainly an ‘abogado de Campanilla’ in every sense of the phrase,” Campanilla stated in refererence to lawyers who are considered as top caliber ones in the olden days.