Lawyers band for Roco

Some 260 lawyers launched yesterday a group to support the presidential bid of former senator Raul Roco at the Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan.

The group, dubbed as Lawyers for Roco/Lawyers for Reform (L4R), said their major undertaking in support of Roco was to guard the national elections next year to ensure that it will be credible and honest.

Among the lawyers who attended the group’s launching were Rep. Oscar Moreno, Bonifacio Alentajan, Sixto Brillantes, corporate personality Rodolfo Salalima and Presidential Legal Counsel Avelino Cruz.

Roco, for his part, welcomed the support of his fellow lawyers saying it will be an additional encouragement for him to seek the presidency and a big boost to his bid.

The L4R lawyers said their support for Roco was based on his performance as former president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), congressman and senator, and education secretary.

Roco, standard-bearer of the Aksyon Demokratiko party, has been the consistent topnotcher in numerous surveys on possible presidential contenders in 2004.

Roco, a founding partner of the prestigious Roco, Bunag, Kapunan and Migallos law firm, was the youngest IBP president who served from 1983 to 1985, during which he led the fight in the Supreme Court to annul the repressive presidential decrees of former President Ferdinand Marcos.

The L4R also cited Roco’s stewardship of the Department of Education and credited him for implementing for the first time free public primary and high school education, and protecting the welfare of teachers by prohibiting illegal deductions from their salaries.

Roco resigned as education secretary last year after the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) charged him with corruption.

The PAGC probe raise eyebrows especially since it came after the release of a survey that showed him as the winner if presidential elections were held at the time of the survey. – Rainier Allan Ronda