SC disbars Cebu lawyer convicted of homicide

The Supreme Court has voted unanimously to disbar a lawyer in Cebu who was convicted of homicide but later released on parole.

 

Raul Sesbreño was found guilty of murdering Luciano Amparado and was sentenced by the Cebu Regional Trial Court Branch 18 to reclusion perpetua. After an appeal, the high tribunal downgraded the crime to homicide and sentenced him to imprisonment of between nine and 16 years.

 

The lawyer was freed on July 27, 2001 after being paroled on July 10, 2001.

 

A certain Dr. Melvyn Garcia eventually filed two complaints of disbarment against Sesbreño, insisting that the lawyer should no longer be allowed to practice law because homicide is a crime against moral turpitude.

 

Sesbreño, however, argued that the executive clemency extended to him restored his full and civil political rights.

 

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Commission on Bar Discipline and the IBP Board of Governors, however, ruled in favor of Garcia, which the high court eventually adopted.

 

The high court agreed with the IBP that the circumstances surrounding the death of Amparado involved moral turpitude. 

 

"The victim was just at the wrong place at the wrong time and did not do anything that justified the indiscriminate firing done by Atty. Sesbreño that eventually led to Amparado's death," the SC quoted the IBP-CBD as ruling.

 

The IBP-CBD cited the case of Soriano vs. Atty. Dizon in which the lawyer was disbarred after his homicide conviction.

 

The SC cited Section 27, Rule 138 of the Rules of Court which states that a member of the bar may be disbarred or suspended as attorney by the SC by reason of his conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude. 

 

"This Court has ruled that disbarment is the appropriate penalty for conviction by final judgment for a crime involving moral turpitude. Moral turpitude is an act of baseness, vileness or depravity in the private duties which a man owes to his fellow men or to society in general, contrary to justice, honesty, modesty or good morals," said the SC.

 

The court also ruled that there was no mention that the executive clemency granted to Sesbreño was absolute and unconditional and ?that it had restored his full civil and political rights. 

 

The executive clemency merely “commuted to an indeterminate prison term of 7 years and 6 months to 10 years imprisonment” the penalty imposed on Sesbreño. 

 

"Commutation is a mere reduction of penalty and it only partially extinguished criminal liability," the SC added.

 

“The practice of law is not a right but a privilege. It is granted only to those possessing good moral character. A violation of the high moral standards of the legal profession justifies the imposition of the appropriate penalty against a lawyer, including the penalty of disbarment.” said the high tribunal. — Mark Merueñas/JDS, GMA News