MANILA, Philippines - Lawyers are held to a higher moral standard, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) reminded Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez yesterday as women’s party-list group Gabriela slammed him for flaunting his extramarital affairs.
Alvarez, who is locked in a bitter feud with Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr., had shrugged off threats to disbar him over his girlfriend, saying this was commonplace.
“As defender of women’s rights, we express grave concern as to how Speaker Alvarez flaunts his extramarital affairs as something ordinary and acceptable. It reeks of machismo unbecoming of a public servant, more so of the Speaker of the House of Representatives,” Gabriela said in a statement.
In a statement yesterday, IBP president Rosario Setias-Reyes reminded Alvarez that as a lawyer, the “highest standards of morality, behavior and professionalism” are expected of him.
“In the event that someone should file a complaint against Congressman Alvarez, he will, of course, be granted the full measure of his right to due process, but these shall be the same standards against which his actions shall be measured,” she added.
In Garrido vs Garrido and Valencia, the Supreme Court disbarred two lawyers for having extramarital affairs. The court said it was gross immorality and violation of the lawyer’s oath and the Code of Professional Responsibility.
The Office of the Ombudsman suspended Davao Oriental Provincial Agrarian Reform Adjudicator Romeo Covarrubias for living with another woman.
In media interviews on Thursday and yesterday, Alvarez admitted that he has a girlfriend, whom Cathy Binag, Floirendo’s live-in partner, has identified as Jennifer Maliwanag Vicencio.
Alvarez, a supporter of President Duterte, told his critics that is willing to face disbarment for having a girlfriend and boasted that if he would be disbarred, the country might run out of lawyers.
“My God, who doesn’t have a girlfriend?” he said on Thursday.
Alvarez has also admitted having children with different women.
“So you won’t have difficulty finding out, I have eight children. I have two with my first wife, four with the second. And then, there were two more. But none with my present girlfriend,” he said.
“I am just like you. I hope your wives are not listening,” he told his male radio interviewers.
Alvarez said he would like to be transparent about his personal life because “if I deny it, I will be lying.”
But Gabriela said the statement of Alvarez on his extramarital affairs and his insinuation that all lawyers in the country might be disbarred too for such act is a “reckless generalization.”
“It casts unnecessary intrigue on the legal profession, which is irrelevant to the main issue that Speaker Alvarez is in,” Gabriela said in a statement.
“As defender of women’s rights, we express grave concern as to how Speaker Alvarez flaunts his extramarital affairs as something ordinary and acceptable. It reeks of machismo unbecoming of a public servant, more so of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
“The power struggle between Speaker Alvarez and Rep. Floirendo should not be primarily linked to the squabble between their girlfriends. We call on the public to focus on the deeper underlying political and economic motives that are at play in the issue,” Gabriela added.
Yesterday, Alvarez claimed that the altercation between Binag and Vicencio in Bacolod City last October was a spin peddled by the Floirendo camp to divert attention away from the prison land lease of the Floirendos’ Tagum Development Corp. (Tadeco).
The Speaker alleged that the Tadeco deal “was grossly disadvantageous to the government.”
“Let’s talk about the real issue, in which the government is losing money. The personal stuff, we can talk about that in the parlor,” he said.