After Du30 award gets flak, IBP to review rules
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) said on Wednesday it would review its recognition protocols as it defended a local chapter’s recognition of former President Rodrigo Duterte as “a pillar of law.”
Duterte, now facing three counts of murder as crimes against humanity over his war on drugs before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, was recently honored with the Golden Pillar of Law Award by the IBP chapter in Davao City, his hometown.
As the national and official organization of lawyers in the country, the IBP said it was bound by the discipline of due process, suggesting that the former leader was still presumed innocent until proven guilty.
“We do not confer guilt or grace beyond the reach of law. Yet we know, too, that the law without conscience is hollow, and that practice of law without compassion is incomplete,” the IBP posted on its Facebook page.
“To this end, the IBP will review its recognition protocols to ensure that future honors reflect both integrity of service and fidelity to the ideals of justice,” it added, agreeing that it has to factor in accountability when honoring a person’s service.
‘Disgrace’
Members of the legal community have pointed out the irony in the IBP award to Duterte, with National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers chair Edre Olalia saying it was “unbelievable” and a “disgrace.”
“No one else could be so undeserving. And to mindlessly gloss over that this award was given automatically for mere length of years as a lawyer is to bestow it to even those who make a mockery of the lofty IBP ideals of no master but law, no goal but justice, and no guide but conscience,” said Olalia, a recipient of the inaugural IBP human rights award last year.
The government acknowledged that 6,000 were killed in Duterte’s crackdown on drug dealers and users, but human rights groups put the figure at 30,000 or more.
Criteria met
The IBP Davao City Chapter had defended the conferment, saying that Duterte fully met the qualifications set by its national office.
“The Golden Pillar of Law Award does not serve as an endorsement of political acts or personal ideologies. It is a recognition of professional longevity and standing under the IBP’s by-laws, applied without distinction, and grounded on verifiable compliance with the rules governing the legal profession,” the IBP chapter in Davao said on Wednesday.
50 years of practice
It asserted that lawyers must be reminded of their duty to “rise above biases and to uphold this fundamental precept of our justice system, that judgment must rest on evidence and final conviction, not mere perception.”
“Every person is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” it added.
Citing an Aug. 20 memorandum from IBP national president Allan Panolong, the Davao chapter explained that the award is given to individuals who have practiced law for 50 or more years.
The IBP guidelines provide that a lawyer is automatically qualified for the distinction if he’s in “good standing,” which means he has paid all membership dues and all authorized special assessments, and is not suspended from law practice or from membership privileges.
“In addition, each awardee must have completed at least 50 years in the practice of law reckoned from the date of admission to the Philippine Bar; and [has] not been convicted of any crime involving moral turpitude, nor subjected to any disciplinary action by the IBP or the Supreme Court,” IBP Davao said.
Based on the guidelines, it noted, Duterte “fully meets each criterion, in the same manner as all other awardees across the nation who were likewise conferred the same honor.”
