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Luis Tabuena vs Hon Sandiganbayan & PEOPLE [DISSENTING OPINION, DAVIDE, JR., J.]

LUIS A. TABUENA, petitioner, vs. HONORABLE SANDIGANBAYAN, and THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, respondents.

G.R. Nos. 103501-03 | 1997-02-17

DISSENTING OPINION
 

DAVIDE, JR. J.:

Last 20 September 1996 in Regala v. Sandiganbayan,[1] this Court erected a barrier to the constitutionally mandated task to recover ill-gotten wealth and in the punishment of those who dirtied their hands with it. This the Court did by impliedly granting immunity from civil suit or liability under an expanded interpretation of the lawyer-client privilege, lawyers who were alleged to have acted as co-conspirators or dummies of certain parties in the acquisition of such wealth.

The acquittal decreed by the majority in the cases under consideration places another obstacle to such recovery and...