The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday, Jan. 4, ordered the preventive suspension of lawyer Lorenzo G. Gadon for uttering profanities in social media against journalist Raissa Robles, the Manila correspondent for the South China Morning Post.
In a resolution, Gadon was directed to explain to the SC why he should not be disbarred.
His preventive suspension as a lawyer is enforced until lifted by the SC.
The SC’s public information office (PIO) said that on Dec. 15, 2021, “a video of Gadon uttering profanities against Robles went viral in social media, where the former appeared exasperated by the fact that Robles called Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ R. Marcos a tax evader.”
It said “the public has urged the Court and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) to discipline Gadon over his latest vulgar rant, saying that Gadon’s actions are not only an insult to Robles, but to the entire legal profession as well.”
The SC took immediate action, it said, and acted on the complaints.
The PIO said that “Gadon had, on previous instances, publicly displayed the same kind of behavior, for which he is currently facing disbarment complaints before the Court and the IBP.”
“In a Resolution issued today, Jan. 4, 2022, the Court En Banc motu proprio (on its own initiative) treated the matter as a formal administrative complaint for disbarment against Gadon, who was given a non-extendible period of 10 days to file his comment, in consideration of the numerous prior controversies leading to the disbarment cases filed against Gadon, and the most recent viral video where he displayed the same controversial behavior despite previous warnings,” it said.
It said the SC directed its Office of the Bar Confidant to submit an updated list of the pending administrative cases against Gadon within 10 days from receipt of the Resolution, while the IBP was required to submit a status report of Gadon’s administrative cases.
The PIO said the SC had previously “penalized Gadon with a three-month suspension in a disbarment case in 2019 for the statements he made about the use of legal remedies as slow and requiring a lot of resources; and the malicious and arrogant language he used against the adverse party and her lawyer.”
In that case, it said “the Court already reminded Gadon to be more wary of his actions and to restrain himself in displaying ill temper and to refrain from using abusive and distasteful language.”
It said the SC had warned that “a repetition of the same or similar act shall be dealt with more severely.”
“But despite such warning, Gadon has continued to display similarly abhorrent behavior, with the viral video against Robles,” it added.