THE Supreme Court on Tuesday announced the disbarment of a lawyer who collected a huge sum of money from relatives of an accused by promising to secure his acquittal before the Court of Appeals (CA).
Ordered to be stricken off from the Roll of Attorneys effective immediately was lawyer Marie Frances Ramon.
Ramon was found guilty of violating the Lawyer’s Oath, Canons 1, 7 and 10, and Rules 1.01, 1.02, 7.03, 10.01, 10.02 and 10.03 of the Code of Professional Responsibility and Grave Misconduct, whose disbarment is without prejudice to the civil or criminal cases pending and/or to be filed against her.
“Atty. Ramon has tarnished the image of the legal profession and has lessened the public faith in the Judiciary. Hence, the ultimate penalty of disbarment must be imposed upon her,” the Court said.
The administrative complaint stemmed from the joint complaint-affidavit for disbarment filed by CA Associate Justices Fernanda Lampas-Peralta, chairperson of the Sixth Division, Stephen C. Cruz, senior member of the Fifth Division, and Ramon Paul L. Hernando, then-junior member of the Fifth Division, now a member of SC.
The CA justices accused Ramon of representing herself as a lawyer who can influence appellate court justices to secure an acquittal of an accused; defrauding the relatives of an accused to amass a large amount of money; and committing the crimes of estafa and falsification.
Based on the findings of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Commission and the recommendation of the IBP Board, which was adopted by the Court, Ramon lured Maria Rossan de Jesus into giving her a huge sum of money by promising to secure the acquittal of her cousin Tirso Fajardo.
Ramon, according to the investigation, duped her clients by drafting a sham decision regarding the purported acquittal of Fajardo and placed the names of the CA justices on the fake decision although the case was assigned in a different division and assigned to a different CA justice.