Abra gov hit on corruption rap

BANGUED, Abra — For saying that justice is allegedly for sale in Abra, Gov. Vicente Valera has stirred up a storm and found himself the focus of criticisms from three of the province’s powerful legal and judicial organizations.

In a joint manifesto, Abra’s Philippine Judges’ Association, National Prosecutors’ League and Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) declared that Valera’s "sweeping statement is not only grossly unfair to the legal profession but highly inflammatory."

"Such categorical statement could be misconstrued as a call to anarchy and lawlessness and incite civil disobedience to the courts," the manifesto stated.

Signatories were Abra Regional Trial Court (RTC) Executive Judge Charito Gonzales, RTC Judge Corpuz Alzate, IBP-Abra president Cipriano Blanco, assistant regional state prosecutor Oscar Lorenzo and assistant provincial prosecutor Nestor Tolentino.

In a phone interview, Blanco said that if Valera has an axe to grind against provincial prosecutor Rodor Gayao, who survived a recent ambush, he (Valera) should not include the rest of the province’s judicial system in his scathing remarks.

He said they were protesting Valera’s wholesale accusation "because if we don’t, it will be taken as a true portrayal of the judicial system in Abra, which it is not."

Gayao, along with three companions, was waylaid in Peñarrubia town recently, and Valera had claimed that the perpetrators could be litigants disgruntled with the kind of justice they have received from the province’s prosecutors and judges.

The three groups also condemned the ambush, saying the attempt on Gayao’s life "is tantamount to an attempt to stifle the dispensation of justice in the province."

They welcomed Valera’s call for an audit of how justice is being dispensed in the province "but without losing sight of the desire of everyone for the speedy solution" of the ambush.