Court orders lawyer to explain no-show during promulgation

Regional Trial Court Judge Raphael Yrastorza has directed lawyer Clarence Paul Oaminal to explain why no disciplinary action should be meted against him for his failure to appear during the promulgation of the case of his two clients.

Oaminal was the lawyer of live-in couple Rolando Cuico and Theresa Castro whom the court sentenced to life imprisonment and fined P3 million for qualified trafficking in persons. The court said evidence showed that the couple had pimped nine prostitutes, some of them minors.

But Oaminal failed to appear during the promulgation of the case on July 20, prompting the court to appoint another lawyer, Cornelius Gonzales, to represent Cuico and Castro when judgment was read.

“Atty. Clarence Paul Oaminal is given three days from receipt of this order to show cause why no disciplinary action should be imposed upon him for abandoning his client in the promulgation of the case,” Yrastorza said in his order.

In a telephone interview, Oaminal said what happened was pure miscommunication. He admitted that a notice might have been sent to his office but he was not able to read it.

Oaminal said he would give his formal explanation to the court as soon as he receives the order.

Cuico and Castro were arrested in December 2004 after they supplied nine prostitutes, some of them minors, to agents of the National Bureau of Investigation who posted as customers in an uptown hotel.

The NBI agents immediately placed the couple under arrest after receiving the P1,500 marked money supposedly as payment for the services of the prostitutes. In the process, the NBI rescued the nine girls.

The arrest was the result of the request made by the International Justice Mission which first received the information about the illegal activities of the couple in barangay Kamagayan.

Upon trial, the girls pointed to the two accused as their pimps. The girls said the accused ordered them to falsify their birth certificates to make it appear that they are already of legal age.

In his decision, Yrastorza said the denial of the accused could not overcome the overwhelming evidence against them.

“Both accused are liable to compensate the victims who gravely suffered from their acts of trafficking them,” Yrastorza said.

On top of the P3 million fine, Yrastorza also ordered the couple to pay P100,000 each in moral and exemplary damages. — Joeberth M. Ocao/LPM