SC suspends Lozano, daughter for professional misconduct

The Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended lawyers Oliver Lozano and his daughter Evangeline Lozano-Endriano from practicing law for committing grave professional misconduct in connection with their "baseless" complaint against two retired SC justices. In a 14-page per curiam resolution, the Court en banc unanimously declared that the Lozanos are “unfit to continue to be entrusted with the duties and responsibilities belonging to the office of an attorney." The court said the Lozanos exhibited “a reckless lack of respect and disregard" for the country’s justice system when they filed the complaint against retired Chief Justice Hilario Davide and Justice Alicia Austria-Martinez with the Office of the Ombudsman. The complaint, which the court said has no legal basis, stemmed from Davide and Martinez’s participation in SC First Division resolution in the consolidated cases of the Heirs of Antonio Pael v. Court of Appeals, and Destura v. CA. Last March 2, the Court issued a resolution dismissing for lack of merit the graft complaint against Davide and Martinez, and ordered the Lozanos to explain in writing why they should not be sanctioned. In their complaint, the Lozanos alleged that Davide, then Division Chair, and Martinez, committed unlawful acts in resolving the cases, including overturning the findings of fact of the Court of Appeals. But the SC said the Lozanos brazenly misquoted and misused applicable constitutional provisions to justify their case. The Lozanos, in response, said the mistakes were unintentional and dismissed them as mere typographical errors. “The Court looks with complete disfavor at the Lozanos’ repeated attempts to mislead this Court. We have given them the opportunity to show that they did not violate Rule 10.02 of the Code of Professional Responsibility when they cited an obviously inoperative constitutional provision and when they were less than forthright in their representations before this Court. Their response to this proffered opportunity, however, was to give more misleading statements of the facts in further violation of Canon 10 and Rule 10.1 of the Code," the SC said. It further said the Court could no longer countenance the Lozanos’ gross transgressions of ethical rules and the canons of the legal profession. “We point out with special emphasis that this case is not simply about the misquote and misuse of constitutional provisions, although this transgression itself is a serious matter…. Charging a magistrate with issuing an improper verdict, without any legal or factual basis for the charge, not only wrongly discredits the magistrate, but encourages as well similar actions that ultimately may weaken and undermine public confidence in the Court and its members and bring the whole justice system to disrepute," it said. - KBK, GMANews.TV