THE government will investigate the personalities behind the complaint filed by lawyer Jude Jose Sabio, counsel of self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato, before the International Criminal Court against President Rodrigo Duterte and 11 senior government officials.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II hinted out there were people orchestrating the actions of Matobato and Sabio to destabilize the Duterte administration.
“Matobato, Sabio and whoever is behind them are out to destabilize the Duterte administration by discrediting it before the international community. I believe that somebody is behind them because they will not be so brazen in their actions if there is no one holding the strings, purse strings included, behind the scenes. Ask them who is paying for their expenses in going to the ICC,” Aguirre said in a statement.
Aguirre said: “Are these funders public officials at present? If yes, are they using the public funds of their offices to undermine the government?
“If yes, they should be investigated and be made accountable. If, on the other hand, the funding is private, then it is still an act of destabilization. These destabilizers do not want the Filipino people to have a drug-free future.
“They hate it when the greater majority of our countrymen benefit from the many gains of the Duterte administration. To them and their kind, I say, bring it on!”
Aguirre also expressed disappointment with Sabio’s act.
Aguirre added: “I am disappointed with Atty. Sabio. As brethren in the noble profession of lawyering, he has sunk so low. He has deliberately prostituted himself at the altar of greed and self-interest.
“He has disregarded our Lawyer’s Oath that a lawyer shall not do any falsehood, nor consent to the doing of any.
“His present action totally disregarded the warning issued to him by the Supreme Court itself in the August 11, 2008 case of Judge Alden V. Cervantes vs. Atty. Jude Josue L. Sabio.”
Solicitor General Jose Calida vowed to file a disbarment complaint against Sabio for filing baseless suits.
Calida noted the SC sanctioned Sabio in 2008 for filing a groundless bribery charge against Judge Alden Cervantes, who was the presiding judge of the Municipal Trial Court of Cabuyao, Laguna until his retirement in 2005.
The high court ruled that Sabio violated the proscription in the lawyers’ Code of Professional Responsibility against wittingly or willingly promoting or suing any groundless suit including baseless administrative complaints against judges and other court officers and employees.
Sabio also ran for a Senate seat last year and lost.
“This perennial loser stubbornly refuses to heed the warning from the Supreme Court that if he commits the same infraction, he will be punished more severely. We will see him in court,” Calida said.
On April 24, 2017, a communication was filed by Sabio before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, accusing President Rodrigo Duterte and 11 other government officials of crimes against humanity.
“It appears that this lawyer is in the business of maliciously filing baseless suits based only on hearsays and unfounded suspicions,” Calida said.
“Sabio represents the discredited Matobato, who is being coddled by Sen. Antonio Trillanes, a yellow sympathizer and soul brother of Sen. Leila de Lima. As we all know, Senators Trillanes and De Lima are both incessant hecklers of the President,” Calida stressed.
The Solicitor General also said his media interviews were maliciously taken out of context in the communication filed before the ICC.
“Sabio is a compliant stooge of the yellow cult who planned to destabilize the Duterte government because they do not have the numbers to impeach the President,” Calida said.
According to Calida, his statement was made in the context of the then Senate inquiry, chaired by Sen. Leila de Lima, on the administration’s anti-drug campaign.
“I told the members of the Philippine National Police that if the Senate investigation was not in aid of legislation, the OSG will defend them if they are called to appear before the Senate,” Calida said. “Obviously, they took my words out of context in order to include me in the communication.”