Arroyo lawyers: Lambino, Topacio and Flaminiano
It may be unlikely that Arroyo lawyers Jose Flaminiano, Raul Lambino and Ferdinand Topacio may spend time in jail for their alleged “grand deception to hide the real condition of Arroyo,” but what the heck – probe them just the same to see where the case will end up to.
From the very beginning it has always been my contention that the doctors of ex-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should, among them, designate a spokesperson, who would be facing the media to report the accurate and factual condition and situation of the patient.
As it was, the lawyers were the ones hugging the limelight, answering the questions from the media, relative to Arroyo’s health, with their own medical diagnosis and recommendations.
Of course what they were saying could be considered as hearsay as the health bulletin regarding Arroyo’s predicament did not come from the horse’s mouth, but from lawyers whose hidden agenda was to argue that their filthy-rich client be allowed to leave for treatment abroad. Thus, the explanation has to come from them so that, with the articulation that they are known for, they can move and sway the public sentiment.
It is just right, therefore, that Justice Secretary Leila de Lima wants the lawyers of Arroyo investigated, not only by the Supreme Court and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, but also by the Philippine Medical Association, over reports that they harassed their client’s doctors just to try to win their battle on the legal front.
There seems to be a strong belief, among many, that Arroyo’s lawyers were not only grandstanding and playing with the emotion of the public for sympathy, but were allegedly harassing the doctors for a report giving credence to the Arroyo request for travel and seek treatment abroad.
De Lima explained that forcing doctors to certify false medical certificates – just as what the lawyers alleged did to Arroyo’s doctors – “smacks of grave coercion, if not obstruction of justice.”
“Their (doctors’) rights are being grossly violated,” she pointed out.
Now that the truth has been revealed, when Arroyo’s doctors testified before Judge Jesus Mupas of the Pasay Regional Trial Court Branch 112 that their patient was mending well and ready to be discharged from the hospital, all of a sudden Arroyo’s arrogant lawyers not only turned 360 degrees, but also changed their tune by saying that “the medical condition of Mrs.Arroyo is immaterial when it comes to her right to travel.”
Lawyer Raul Lambino said further that “It was not important whether Mrs. Arroyo was well or not, since the issue centers on her right to travel and her right to life was just a “side issue.”
Oh, yeah? Were you not making us believe that it was the other way around?
These anomalous statements all the more require Arroyo’s lawyers to be probed.
