IN RE ALMACEN

G.R. No. L-27654

-Atty. Vicente Raul Almacen was a counsel for Antonio Calero in the case of Virginia Y. Yaptinchay vs. Antonio H. Calero. -He filed a "Petition to Surrender Lawyer's Certificate of Title," in protest against what he therein asserts is "a great injustice committed against his client by this Supreme Court." -Describes the Court as a tribunal "peopled by men who are calloused to our pleas for justice, who ignore without reasons their own applicable decisions and commit culpable violations of the Constitution with impunity.

-Goes as far as ridiculing the members of this Court, saying "that justice as administered by the present members of the Supreme Court is not only blind, but also deaf and dumb." He then vows to argue the cause of his client "in the people's forum," xxx.

ISSUE : Whether or not Atty Almacen should be sanctioned or be given disciplinary action.

HELD: YES. Atty. Almacen failure to move the appellate court to review the lower court's judgment is through his negligence, causing the forfeiture of the remedy of appeal, which, incidentally, is not a matter of right. To shift away from himself the consequences of his carelessness, he looked for a "whipping boy." But he made sure that he assumed the posture of a martyr, and, in offering to surrender his professional certificate, he took the liberty of vilifying this Court and inflicting his exacerbating rancor on the members thereof.

Investiture into the legal profession places upon his shoulders no burden more basic, more exacting and more imperative than that of respectful behavior toward the courts. He vows solemnly to conduct himself "with all good fidelity . . . to the courts." The Rules of Court constantly remind him to observe and maintain the respect due to courts of justice and judicial officers. The first canon of legal ethics enjoins him "to maintain towards the courts a respectful attitude, not for the sake of the temporary incumbent of the judicial office, but for the maintenance of its supreme importance.
Canon 1.- A lawyer shall uphold the Constitution, obey the laws of the land and PROMOTE RESPECT FOR LAW AND LEGAL PROCESSES.