Solgen to file disbarment case vs Misor lawyer over ICC plaint

SOLICITOR General Jose Calida has threatened to file a disbarment case against Jude Jose Sabio, the lawyer from Misamis Oriental who filed a complaint against President Duterte and 11 other government officials for crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Sabio, the lawyer of self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato, hails from Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental. He has been contributing opinion pieces for this paper from time to time.

Calida accused Sabio of filing “baseless” suits, calling him a “perennial loser [who] stubbornly refuses to heed the warning from the Supreme Court that if he commits the same infraction, he will be punished more severely.”

Calida said that Sabio ran for a Senate seat, and lost last year.

This April 24, a communication was filed by Sabio before the ICC in The Netherlands, accusing Duterte, Calida and 10 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.

He said Sabio represents Matobato whom he linked to senators Antonio Trillanes and Leila de Lima, vocal critics of the Duterte administration.

He said Sabio is allegedly part of a supposed destabilization plan against the Duterte administration “because they do not have the numbers to impeach the President.”

Calida said his media interviews were “maliciously taken out of context” by Sabio in his complaint, explaining that his pronouncements were made in the context of a Senate inquiry on the government’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.”

For his part, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said he was disappointed with Sabio.

“I am disappointed with Atty. Sabio… 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,” said Aguirre.

The officials said that the SC sanctioned Sabio in 2008 for filing a groundless bribery charge against a judge in Cabuyao, Laguna.

They said the SC 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.

He alleged that there are people behind the actions of Matobato and Sabio supposedly 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.

“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 exclaimed. (pna)