Lawyers waive fees for impeachment trial

Lawyers at the center stage of President Estrada’s impeachment trial have waived their professional fees.

Both private prosecutors and defense lawyers have a "pro bono arrangement" with their clients — meaning they have not been charging anything for their legal services, acting Press Secretary Mike Toledo told The STAR yesterday.

Mr. Estrada’s lawyers are led by retired Chief Justice Andres Narvasa, former Solicitor General Este-lito Mendoza and former Manila City Prosecutor Jose Flaminiano.

Toledo, who is a lawyer, spoke highly of his compañeros who are appearing for the protagonists in the impeachment trial of the Chief Executive.

"As far as I know, so far the lawyers, they (defense lawyers) are not charging anything for their services," he said. "So it’s a pro bono arrangement. If there is any other special arrangements, I’m not aware of that."

Toledo said it is not "totally impossible" for the high-priced lawyers who are appearing in the impeachment trial to waive their professional fees.

"I’m sure if you ask the private prosecutors that it’s quite possible that they’re rendering services pro bono because it is a service to the country," he said.

Toledo said that when he was a litigation lawyer, he defended a Cabinet secretary under the Aquino administration against allegations of graft and corruption.

"It was pro bono because lawyers, just like doctors, we also have our conscience," he said.

Toledo said he had just passed the Bar when he took the pro bono case, and that he won the case and had his client acquitted.

"It’s good for the soul that you render your services for free either to the indigent or to poor ligants or to the country," he said "I think that is one way for lawyers to show their patriotism."

Toledo took up law at the Univesity of the Philippines and passed the Bar in 1985. – Marichu Villanueva