Law practice in the Philippines quite simply is not that straightforward. Ask lawyer Raymond Fortun who recently resigned as spookesman for alleged Chinese mafiosi Cedric Lee who, together with starlet Deniece Cornejo, are accused of viciously mauling variety show host Vhong Navarro and framing him for rape.
No longer challenged: Former Cedric Lee spokesman Raymond Fortun
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Fortun reportedly linked the prevalence of “inaccurate reportage” coming from the media and the “unprofessional actions” of the involved law enforcement agencies to Filipinos’ “apparent unpreparedness to temper their emotions” when regarding sensational cases like these.
Fortun in early February this year had originally taken on the job because he seemingly believed that Lee was the real victim in this case…
“I love the underdog… I enjoy the good fight, and I relish handling the toughest cases. Lawyering for me has never been about the money. It’s about the pursuit for truth and justice, it’s about fairness and equality,” Fortun’s Facebook status message read.
Turns out that this case was simply too tough for Fortun. By mid-February, he was already complaining about the incessant “trial by publicity” being copped by his client.
Indeed, in a statement to the press shortly after his resignation as Lee’s mouthpiece, Fortun may as well have been directly addressing Philippine Senators currently “busy” pointlessly grilling pork barrel scam snitches Benhur Luy and Ruby Tuason under the guise of the much-abused concept of the Senate “Blue Rubbon Committee”.
Fortun believes that people need to know more about the law and how it works especially in respecting due process before making judgements.
“All I wanted is for people to be fair, to let the evidence come out before they rendered a guilty verdict. More importantly, I just wanted people to respect the accused’s Constitutional rights to due process. But … this country is not ready to be fair,” he said.
In a letter to Lee reported on Sunday, Fortun similarly said that Filipinos are not prepared “to temper their emotions” when it comes to controversial cases.
There you go.
With their Senators (and even their President) behaving the same way, it’s hardly surprising that Philippine society overall mirrors these attitudes. The dynamic at work within the Senate “probe” into the pork barrel scandal, evident in the emotionally-charged manner with which Senators take turns grilling their celebrity snitches, without a doubt reflects the character of Philippine society itself.
[Photo courtesy PhilNews.ph.]
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
“Mr” Fortune, we may not all be ” lawyers” but that does not mean we are not entitled to state our opinions. If our opinion so happens to be that you are a sleazeball, dont blame us, blame yourself for BEING a sleazeball. You are pathetic.
Huh?
Opinions regarding on going cases are a world apart from what pinoys are doing. Pinoys love to wallow in the sensational and give outright judgments in so many cases sensationalized by the media. Fortun is right in saying that the filipino people is really having a hard time separating facts from emotions.
You were saying?
Mr Fortun, if you are indeed a good Lawyer who seeks for the truth, don’t resign and defend Lee. And whatever you will say in your argument, we already have made up our minds. It’s all about the money that Cedric is paying you that’s why you took this case. Lee is a thug!
Now that is one classic example of what I said above.
ok ah…. ambilis mo maghusga ikaw at mga katulad mo ang dapat maging judge dito sa bansa natin para walang natutulog na kaso dito… problema lang kung meron mga kabuluhan mga judgement mo
Exactly. Drawing the parallel between media too tight with the Showbiz Government elected by the people. History just repeating itself in this dysfunctional showbiz society. Proud to be Pinoy!!!!!
What Fortun said also reflects on the character of the people pandering this site. You judge easily what you perceived to be true without providing concrete evidence against the person you hated the most, which is the obvious.
Aw come on!
Read the articles here since day 1 and say if all the criticism, faults and shortcomings of your demi God is baseless. I dare you.
All I read are opinionated and self-raged propagandas. I don’t see any real facts.
Example: Others say Pnoy is not corrupt.
You would say of course he is corrupt.
Now where’s your exorbitant evidence to prove that allegations? because you are countering it, the burden of proof lies on you. Atty. Fortun is right on the above article.
I agree Pnoy is not corrupt, he is just inept. I cite the lack of coherent national government response as tangible proof of this.
He is also a liar, remember his promise on the FOI bill?
He also can not take criticism too well (Onion skinned?) opting to have a convenient fall guy when something major occurs against his administration.
Yolanda crisis => LGU
Manila Hostage crisis => LGU, Gunman
Pork barrel scam => Arroyo
Dip in satisfaction rating => Arroyo
So yea I agree, Pnoy is definitely not corrupt, in fact I think he is too inept to plunder the public funds.
I had really hoped I would be proven wrong when I realized Aquino won the presidency years back. That maybe he my perception of him can be overturn. Well, suffice to say he hasn’t been doing a stellar job at that.
Incompetency is also a sign of corruption although using inept trolls to spread his propaganda is also corruption since he is using tax money to fund his personal army of internet morons.
The reason you do not see any evidence of corruption is your narrow-minded refusal to acknowledge them as incidents of corruption that actually happened.
The President’s protection of political adviser Ronald Llamas over the illegal weapons charges is one. The initial protection afforded LTO chief Virginia Torres is another. The fact that she was eventually let go was because the President had no choice. A competent, incorruptible public official would have released Torres the moment video evidence surfaced that she was breaking the law.
The fact is — President Aquino protects his close friends over and above welfare of the Filipino people. And fools like Jigs continue to worship at the feet of the Aquinos and obfuscate the truth about them.
Johnny
I’m not a paid troll. I’m an OFW with an independent mind working in private company without any connections in the State (Government) and Media.
I’m not refusing nor conceding on your allegations but just as what Atty. Fortun stated above, you must provide concrete/undeniable evidence before you judge one person. Now, you have to stand on your ground.
@Jigs
Right, so you claim not to be a paid troll but how come every time this site undresses your president, you keep showing up to “defend” him?
Undeniable evidence? His handling of the yolanda disaster is one of them and you have seemingly forgotten the fact that CNN was the one that exposed his incompetence to the rest of the world.
There’s also his very first f*ck up: the Luneta Hostage crisis and the fact that he was hiding the whole time during that incident is already a sign of his incompetence.
Jigs,
There was never any claim in my post that you were a paid minion of Malacañang. I merely commented that continuing to defend the indefensible and obfuscating what may be classified as criminal acts borders on sycophancy.
‘I’m not refusing nor conceding on your allegations but just as what Atty. Fortun stated above, you must provide concrete/undeniable evidence before you judge one person.’
What allegations are we talking about now? The possession of a cache of illegal weapons by Ronald Llamas or Virginia Torres playing the slots? Events which, by the way, were documented with video footage that aired on national television. The fact that you consistently refuse to even acknowledge that evidence like this is suggestive and even attempt to explain them away demonstrates where your sympathies lie.
Do the readers a favour and STOP insulting them with your hollow claims of objectivity.
The only propaganda here are the ones being spewed by you and your peers.
Trying to be smart? Why not try adding 1 plus 1 first and see what you get? But then again it is just an opinion that it equals 2.
Ijet!!!
Haha! there you go again. Can’t even make a good rebuttal with coherent argument.
Of course you dont get it, it is beyond your pay grade.
You don’t get what Atty. Fortun is telling you? do you?
Instead of bubbling your mouth, why not provide solid proof?
You really are an idiot! I have already given you all that you need and still you want me to type everything and spoon feed it to you? How dumb is that? I dont have time for blithering idiots.
Joeld
I see how you incessantly used “idiot” in your argument. I guess that’s your signature word. You don’t even realize that it is yourself and you don’t know that you are one until now.
As I said, you can’t even make a good rebuttal out of your so-called “wits.” So who’s idiot is now who can’t even defend what he is spouting here? This is a discussion, of course, spoon feeding is necessary to back-up your claims so that the veracity of your argument will be deemed necessary. I bet you haven’t witness court hearing in your whole life? have you? How pathetic.
@joeld: It looks like we have a jon-asshole este jonas clone here. Or did he just changed his IP address again with a different name.
@Jigs:
Stop with the nonsense. Admit that you’re a LIAR and a TROLL.
Accept it or go home. 😀
@domo
I get it, thanks. It’s just that I would love to enlighten people as long as they need it. This character “Jigs” is obviously just here to muddle opinions based on facts.
Don’t worry though, I gave up on the IDIOT.
If there is a like button here, ill give you one.
don’t blame the people who are watching TV and reading newswpapers bcoz these are their opinions u r so defensive to ur client even highschool students knows what they are saying keep ur mouth shut mr fortune teller? ……..
As far as I see it, Pinoys do not have an opinion, they just ride the fad and go with the “uso” and pass judgement short of condemning the person/s. Depending on which is more “madrama” then that is the way the herd goes.
very true joeld.
Fortrun playing the role of a sensitive lawyer! About as convincing as cedric lee trying to be an upstanding businessman.
” a lawyer needs to be like a rhinoceros – thick-skinned, and ready to charge at any time” $$
Changing lawyers is like changing decks on the titanic, and it won’t be the first time deniece cornejo has gone down with men on board
Juan was moaning to a friend about his lack of a love-life
“I don’t understand,” Juan complained. “When people find out I’m a lawyer, they take an instant dislike to me. Why would they do that?”
His friend appeared to think for a moment and then suggested, “Maybe it just saves time.”
Denise left her condo a couple of minutes after vhong arrived, there was no time to do what he was accused of doing. Argue with the videos. I know fortune was paid a large amount of money despite the evidence at the time, he accepted. Vhong messed with another guys girlfriend ( whether he knew it or not), he got caught and the boyfriend got ” even” . And he did so in a stupid manner, he got caught. The girlfriend obviously consented as during her first meeting with vhong, she allowed him up to her condo. Forget emotions, these are facts. As far as im concerned, i could really care less as to what happens to any of them, but dont any of them or their lawyers pretend that they are all without fault.
Anong kaguluhan ito?
Most Filipino’s are in deed pathetic, you know why? Remember the Maguindanao Massacre? Sigrid Fortun who is Raymond Fortun’s brother was the lawyer for the Ampatuans, did he received this same level of criticism from Filipinos, knowing the brutallity of the issue. And here are some of our fellow countrymen being too emotional and judgemental to the point that the spokesperson of the other party resigned. Same goes with the Pork Barrel scam, why does news headlines tackles more on irrelevant issues instead of national interest like the pork barrel scam. unless news network are being payed or Filipinos is just to lame and prefer watching sensational news about their favorite celebrity. Dont get me wrong I admire Vhong as an actor. But guys, wake up! Don’t involved yourself to much with this mauling incident.