Supreme Court disbars lawyer who faked CA ruling in drug case

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday ordered the disbarment of a lawyer who fabricated a decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) that supposedly acquitted a drug convict.

Justices decided in session to impose the maximum administrative penalty on lawyer Marie Frances Ramon after finding her guilty of grave misconduct and violating both the lawyer’s oath and Code of Professional Responsibility for Lawyers.

The Court ordered Ramon’s name removed from the Roll of Attorneys immediately and without prejudice to filing of civil and criminal cases against her.

The SC issued the disbarment order upon recommendation of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and administrative complaint filed by the three CA justices whose names appeared in the fake decision, Associate Justices Fernanda Lampas-Peralta and Stephen Cruz and former CA Justice now SC Associate Justice Ramon Paul Hernando.

The complainants accused Ramon of representing herself as a lawyer who can influence CA justices to secure an acquittal of an accused, defrauding the accused’s relatives of at least P1 million and committing the crimes of estafa and falsification.

The SC held that Ramon represented to a certain Maria Rossan de Jesus that she could secure the acquittal of De Jesus’ cousin Tirso Fajardo for the crime of violation of Sections 5 (drug sale) and 7 (visiting or working for a drug den) of Republic Act 9165, the comprehensive anti-drug law.

The SC found that Ramon defrauded her clients by drafting a fake decision regarding Fajardo’s purported acquittal and placed the names of the justices in the fake decision even though the criminal case of Fajardo was raffled in a different division and assigned to another magistrate.

Peralta was chair of the Sixth Division of the appellate court while Cruz and Hernando were members of the Fifth Division. 

The Court held that by her actions, Ramon tarnished the image of the legal profession and has lessened the public’s faith in the judiciary.