admin KUNG Kung sino pa ang tumayo para labanan ang higanteng nakawan, siya pa ang napaparusahan.
This disbarment conviction on Engineer Toto Causing virtually acquitted the persons charged by him before the Ombudsman with PLUNDER OF A VERY BIG AMOUNT OF PEOPLE’S MONEY.
This also crippled Engineer Toto Causing from giving his 100 percent support for the quest for justice for the slain Percival Carag Mabasa, popularly known as PERCY LAPID, when Toto has been a spokesman of his family.
Ito ang implikasyon ng disbarment laban kay Engineer Toto Causing.
Sa ganitong sitwasyon, matatakot na ang mga matatapang na abogado na tumayo at gagamitin ang kanilang KARAPATAN SA FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, OF SPEECH, AND OF THE PRESS, na sa kabila ng katotohanan na ito ay pinakamataas na batas, mas mataas pa kay sa ethics law ng pagkaabogado.
Sinasabi sa Section 4 ng Article 3 ng Konstitusyon na, walang batas na maaaring gagawin sa pagkitil ng kalayaan ng pamamahayag, kalayaan ng pagsasalita, at kalayaan sa paglilimbag.
Ang mga karapatan na ito ay hindi pwedeng limitahan ang sinumang abogado na gamitin ang mga ito laban sa katiwalian, nakawan, patayan, pang-aapi, pang-aagaw ng lupa, at pagsasamantala – para maitanggol ang bayang ninakawan at mga walang-lakas, walang yaman, at maliliit na mga tao.
Hindi naman po nakasulat sa Konstitutusyon na exempted ang mga abogado sa “freedom of expression, of speech, and of the press.”
Nagsampa ng plunder noong January 2019 sa Office of the Ombudsman si Engineer Causing, na hanggang ngayon ay nakatulog pa rin.
Kinakampihan ba ng ating Supreme Court ang nakawan kaysa mga mainit na salita laban sa mga katiwalian—na may ebidensya naman?
Wala pong kaibahan na substantial distinction sa gitna ng abogado na maadhika at mga hindi abogado na matapang lumaban.
Tama pa rin.
Tama pa rin ang kultura na ang mga karapatan at kalayaan ay ipinaglalaban ng mga api at hindi ito pinamimigay ng mga mang-aapi.
Nakakalungkot na ang counter-case ng disbarment ng isa sa mga kinasuhan ni Engineer Toto ng plunder ay mas nauna pang na-desisyonan.
Ang reklamo ni Engineer Toto na pandarambong ay suportado ng official receipt na inisyu sa kanya ng mismong tindahan na inakusa nya na nag-overprice sa pakikipagkutsaba sa mga opisyal ng bayan.
Sa Official Receipt na binigay kay Engineer Toto, P270.00 lamang ang halaga ng mga katulad na pagkain na binenta sa kanya, hindi kasama ang tuyo na P48.00 sa public market ng Tacurong City.
Pero, sa hiwalay na Official Receipt ng nasabing tindahan na binigay sa DSWD, lumalabas na ang mga katulad na mga pagkain ay pinresyuhan ng P515.50 nang binenta na sa DSWD para ibigay sa mga bakwit na mga Maranao sa Marawi na tumakbo mula sa giyera laban sa mga teroristang Maute.
Dugo po ng mga Muslim na Maranao ang sinipsip nila rito.
Ang isa sa kinasuhan ni Engineer Toto ng plunder, na si Jackiya A. Lao, ay nagreklamo na hindi na raw siya kasama sa mga nagsala sa mga supplier bilang kasapi ng Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).
Bagamat hindi na sya kasapi ng BAC mula noong 12 September 2017, kasama pa rin sya sa BAC sa mga transaksyon na nangyari hanggang 11 September 2017, mga transaksyon na kasama sa akusasyon na PLUNDER sa kanila.
Engineer Toto based all the plunder facts on the report of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), that may be read at this link: https://pcij.org/article/901/dswd-region-12-blows-a-billion-pesos-on-food-packs-various-kits-for-marawi .
This Decision of the Supreme Court of the Philippines that sentenced Engineer Berteni Cataluña Causing to the supreme penalty of disbarment THREFORE VIRTUALLY ACQUITTED THE OFFICIALS charged by Engineer Toto Causing with PLUNDER.
It will be revolting to conscience then that the Ombudsman will dismiss the same plunder complaint because the Supreme Court disbarred Engineer Causing.
The same plunder suit was filed because of the EXCEEDINGLY-DISGUSTING OVERPRICE of foods for Maranao evacuees during the Marawi war in 2017.
Engineer Causing lamented also the crippling effect of this decision to the fight for justice for PERCIVAL CARAG MABASA, better known as PERCY LAPID.
He came with clean hands in this plunder case. Now, it is stained by the blood of injustice in this disbarment case.
The news of the disbarment has made the vloggers, the fans and the other supporters of suspended Bureau of Corrections Director General Gerald Quitaleg Bantag now cheering and jeering against Engineer Causing, who has been the spokesman of the family.
They do not mind the reasons – and the truth.
All they care for is they CELEBRATE THE FALL FROM GRACE that to them is sufficient to muddle the issue of murder committed against Percy Lapid.
Another exceeding pain is Engineer Causing cannot now give foods, medical maintenance, and care for his 87-year-old mother and 83-year-old father.
That is despite the truth that Engineer Causing has come with clean hands in this disbarment case to begin with.
The IBP Board of Governors and Commissioner-on-Case made a finding of fact that Engineer Causing falsely wrote in the plunder complaint that the DSWD Region XII official who complained in this disbarment suit was a member of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).
This was grossly erroneous finding of fact that was relied on by the Supreme Court to conclude that Engineer Causing violated the Code of Professional Responsibility, particularly Rule 1.01, which requires that a lawyer shall not engage in unlawful, dishonest, immoral or deceitful conduct.
Unfortunately, Engineer Causing has not considered as “unlawful, dishonest, immoral or deceitful conduct” the act of publishing on Facebook that plunder suit a day before he filed the same with the Ombudsman – and of publishing the same again on Facebook after it was filed.
Unfortunately again, Engineer Causing has not considered himself as a repeat offender in posting this Plunder Complaint on Facebook in January 2019 because the first Facebook post of which he was warned not to repeat was issued in March 2021.
To stress, there was no warning yet not to post on Facebook when Engineer Causing posted the plunder complaint in January 2019.
The first FB post where Engineer Causing was warned was a copy of the nullity-of-marriage petition and Engineer Causing was punished with one-year suspension and warned he will be dealt with severely if he repeats the same.
Can Engineer Toto be now considered as having repeated the same FB post when there was no warning yet in 2019?
She said she was removed from the BAC on 12 September 2017, acting on several supplies deals that formed part of the same plunder complaint.
Considering the fact that Engineer Toto Causing, a former news editor of People’s Journal Tonight, has been in the thick of helping the family of his fellow journalist Percy Lapid in their quest for justice and truth by means of vlogging and acting as their spokesperson, and considering further that THIS DISBARMENT CASE is indispensably connected to the CASE OF THIEVERY OR PLUNDER OF P226 MILLION FILED by Engineer Causing against former congressman Ferdinand Hernandez, Ferdinand’s sister who owns the store that sold the overpriced foods, DSWD Region XII officials Bai Zorahayda T. Taha and Jackiya A. Lao, ENGINGEER TOTO WILL FILE HIS MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION in this disbarment case, Jackiya A. Lao versus Atty. Berteni Cataluña Causing, AC No. 13454.
