Lawyers mad over bungling by their colleagues

WHY is that when lawyers are involved in a scandal, they get a lot more beating from their own colleagues?

The severe bashing that Bureau of Immigration (BI) Associate Commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles get has come from opinion writers, broadcast talk show hosts and legislators -who're also lawyers.

Argosino and Robles are President Duterte's and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre's batch-mates and frat brothers at San Beda Law College. Their ties to high officials have opened them to more scrutiny. But it's their being lawyers that brings them ridicule.

Argosino and Robles came up with the lamest of excuses why they kept P20 million cash for 15 days or so, allegedly from online gambling tycoon Jack Lam, and surrendering it only after the bribe was exposed. The excuse: they were holding it "as evidence of future corruption."

It looks like the BI lawyers are bashed more for the poor "cover-up" than for the crime. The shame is not so much over lawyers committing the crime as for the mediocrity in pulling it off.

Lamer

The bar was raised a notch higher, thus the failure of these explanations:

-- They didn't turn over the cash earlier because of the "secrecy" of their mission.

-- They knew the Parañaque casino teemed with spy cameras, yet they were open in carrying the bags of money, which meant they weren't hiding it.

-- Four hours after they got they P20 million, they allegedly asked for P30 million more. To free the foreign nationals arrested for working illegally at Lam's gaming resort? To collect more evidence of "future corruption."

-- Why didn't they arrest middleman Wally Sombero as the crime was already being committed? They wanted Lam, he wasn't there and the cash was. Still, Lam got away.

Lamer than what they sought to explain. And they are lawyers and lawyers, their lawyer-critics say, are not stupid.