DECLARING he “regretted” supporting the Dutertes, Secretary Lorenzo ‘Larry Kidlat’ Gadon, on Wednesday, November 27, 2024, asked the Supreme Court to, “motu propio,” disbar Vice President Sara Duterte as a member of the bar after her tirade against President Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos and House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez on social media.
The tirade includes the Vice President’s statement that she has “talked” to an unidentified person to “kill” the Marcoses and Romualdez in case she also was killed, alluding that there is a government conspiracy to have her killed.
In the petition he personally filed with the SC, Gadon, Presidential Adviser on Poverty Alleviation (PAPA), added a touch of irony by arguing on the same “principle” of ‘motu propio’ that the SC used to disbar him in June 2023, after first suspending him from law practice for one year.
In his letter, Gadon cited the many expletives that the Vice President hurled against the President, the First Lady, and the Speaker of the House during her social media broadcast via ‘Zoom’ last November 23, that includes her warning of having the three killed if she also was killed.
Gadon said there is no need for the Supreme Court to demand “evidence” before it takes any action as the event was on “numerous social media platforms and has been seen by millions of Filipinos, reported on television, radios and newspapers and now has become general public knowledge that the Court may take judicial notice.”
In that broadcast, the Vice President was expressing her outrage over the alleged conspiracy by both Malacañang and Congress to besmirch her name and reputation thru various congressional hearings.
Duterte’s fuse was finally blown over the baseless decision by Congress to transfer her chief of staff, Atty. Zuleika Lopez, to the Women’s Correctional Facility for detention for alleged failure to tell the “truth” on the expenses of the Office of the Vice President during a congressional inquiry a day earlier.
SC threatened with impeachment
In a talk with Pinoy Exposé, Gadon also threatened to file an impeachment complaint against the SC magistrates should they fail to act on his letter, citing the many instances that the SC allegedly demonstrated bias.
Gadon said he is giving the SC until the opening of the new Congress in July 2025 to act on his request to disbar Duterte.
“I’ll just wait for the next Congress to convene to see if they (SC) would act and if not, I will file an impeachment complaint (against them),” he said, noting that it is already “impractical” to impeach the magistrates now with the 2025 elections already around the corner.
The Supreme Court is a “damaged” institution, he added.
“I do not expect the SC to act on my complaint. The SC is highly political and bias. VP Sara punched and inflicted injury to an officer of the SC when he was implementing an order of the Court but the SC did not lift a finger to disbar nor suspend her.
(This happened in June 2011 when Duterte was mayor of Davao City and she requested the local sheriff. Abe Andres, to first hold off the implementation of a demolition order in Agdao district and wait for her arrival but Andres ignore her plea—Editor).
“The SC did not punish Leila De Lima when she admitted during a Senate hearing that she was having an immoral illicit illegal affair with her driver bodyguard yet, the SC did not bother to sanction her.
(This was during a Senate hearing in November 2016 on illegal drugs transactions at the Bilibid—Editor).
“(Former Justice Secretary) Leila De Lima ‘defied’ a TRO (temporary restraining order) issued by no less the Supreme Court (in the case involving former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) but she was not sanctioned.
(This was in November 2011 while Arroyo was leaving for medical treatment abroad after the SC issued a TRO on the Pinoy Aquino government’s watchlist against the Arroyos. De Lima personally led the stopping of Arroyo from boarding her plane to Singapore—Editor).
“(Atty) Chel Diokno submitted forged and falsified documents in a hearing right inside the halls of the Supreme Court but he was not sanctioned,” Gadon pointed out.
(This was in November 2019 during an SC hearing on a petition for a Writ of Kalikasan’ that Diokno filed on behalf of Palawan fishermen—Editor).
Gadon then pointed out that in January 2022, the SC, acting ‘motu propio,’ suspended him from bar practice for one year over a video rant he directed against Raissa Robles, an editor of the online news site Rappler, after the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) issued a letter of condemnation against him.
He noted the suspension came even without the SC asking him for an explanation.
On his appointment as PAPA last June 27, 2023, Gadon noted the SC also announced its decision removing him from the Rolls of Attorney “in contravention of the confidential nature of such action.”
He added he was disbarred by the SC despite the Philippine National Police (PNP) proving that he was not the one who uploaded his tirades against Robles in the Internet.