Victims of Love

To be a lawyer in this country is never easy. It takes eight years of formal study (4 years of Pre-Law & 4 years of Law proper), a year of preparing for the Bar Exam, and an eternity of reading, reading, and reading. It also takes a lot of sacrifices, many are supreme but some are trivial. Thus, being disbarred is perhaps the most painful thing that can ever happen to a lawyer.

That is why, in Buado vs. Layag, the Supreme Court said, "Disbarment is the most severe form of disciplinary sanction.  The power to disbar must always be exercised with great caution, for only the most imperative reasons, and in clear cases of misconduct affecting the standing and moral character of the lawyer as an officer of the court and a member of the bar."

Yet in the case of former PBA Commissioner Atty. Noli Eala, that's the price he had to pay for having the right love at the wrong time. In 2007, the Supreme  Court disbarred Atty. Eala for "grossly immoral conduct, violation of his oath of office, and violation of Canon 1, Rule 1.01 and Canon 7, Rule 7.03 of the Code of Professional Responsibility" (Guevarra vs. Eala).

[caption id="attachment_2411" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Noli Eala and Irene Moje. Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/83275029@N08/7621819468/in/photostream/[/caption]

What did Atty. Eala do that compelled the court to disbar him? Did he have an adulterous relationship? Did he impregnate someone not his wife? Did he fail to protect the institution of family which, as a lawyer and officer of the court, he swore to respect? Did he make a mockery of marriage as an inviolable social institution? Did he show an extremely low regard for the fundamental ethics of his profession?

The Supreme Court thought so. The decision, however, intrigues the readers more than it clarifies. Why did Irene Moje---the woman with whom Atty. Eala had an illicit affair---marry Joselano Guevarra, the complainant, if right from the start it was Atty. Eala whom she really loved? What must have Moje felt upon reading Atty. Eala's letter on her wedding day?

My everdearest Irene,

By the time you open this, you'll be moments away from walking down the aisle. I will say a prayer for you that you may find meaning in what you're about to do.

Sometimes I wonder why we ever met. Is it only for me to find fleeting happiness but experience eternal pain? Is it only for us to find a true love but then lose it again? Or is it because there's a bigger plan for the two of us?

I hope that you have experienced true happiness with me. I have done everything humanly possible to love you. And today, as you make your vows . . . I make my own vow to YOU!

I will love you for the rest of my life. I loved you from the first time I laid eyes on you, to the time we spent together, up to the final moments of your single life. But more importantly, I will love you until the life in me is gone and until we are together again.

Do not worry about me! I will be happy for you. I have enough memories of us to last me a lifetime. Always remember though that in my heart, in my mind and in my soul, YOU WILL ALWAYS

. . . AND THE WONDERFUL THINGS YOU DO!

BE MINE . . . . AND MINE ALONE, and I WILL ALWAYS BE YOURS AND YOURS ALONE!

I LOVE YOU FOREVER, I LOVE YOU FOR ALWAYS. AS LONG AS I'M LIVING MY TWEETIE YOU'LL BE!"

Eternally yours,

NOLI

What is really in love that it gives euphoria to some and pain to others? What is really in love that people are so drawn to it although they know how much it hurts?

Shakespeare had it right when he said that "You cannot both love and be wise." So powerful is the force of love that it can make an intelligent man unintelligent; that it can transform a prudent man imprudent; and that it can make a careful man careless.