Isabelo Gumaru, general counsel of the state-owned Philippine Export-Import Credit Agency, said majority of state lawyers had already expressed their opposition to the bill pending at the House of Representatives seeking the transfer of the OGCC to the OSG. Cases vs GOCCsADVERTISEMENTGumaru, a trustee of the Philippine Association of Government Corporate Lawyers, noted that the OSG, the state’s primary law firm, had been litigating cases brought against government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs), which were being represented by OGCC lawyers. He said it would be “unethical and improper” for OSG lawyers to appear in courts as counsels for opposing parties involved in a legal tussle and that it would be a violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility of lawyers. “If the OGCC were to be abolished, we would have a scenario wherein lawyers from the (OSG would) represent both entities involved in a legal dispute,” Gumaru said in a statement. This scenario, Gumaru said, would induce violations of ethics by lawyers of the OSG who would be tapped to represent GOCCs being sued by the government.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer March 06, 2018 23:03 UTC