ILOILO City – Lawyers here have denounced Ben Tulfo of the YouTube program “Bitag Live” for engaging in “grossly unethical journalism in the guise of ‘investigative journalism.’”
The Iloilo chapter of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) headed by its president Lorena Gellada-Tubongbanua has issued a statement decrying Tulfo’s act of “obstructing the administration of justice which tends to bring the Courts and its officers into disrepute or disrespect.”
In a video posted on his YouTube program last week, Tulfo is seen lecturing a lawyer whom he describes as a newbie, “marami pang kakaining bigas,” and “may gatas pa sa bibig.” Tulfo says he is “trying to school this attorney, para malaman niya. Kumbaga, back to basic.”
The lawyer involved is Kazper Vic Bermejo who is representing a client complaining of grave threats and who was apparently able to secure warrants of arrest against the father of a woman that Tulfo is assisting. The woman and her family are based in Concepcion, Iloilo.
Bermejo was viewed in that program getting berated by Tulfo, who told him “tigas ng bumbunan mo,” for standing his ground that the crime that should be charged is grave threats and not slander as insisted by Tulfo.
In that interview, Tulfo name-dropped IBP national president Domingo Cayosa, and state prosecutor Richard Fadullion of the Department of Justice as allegedly supportive of his position. The name of Supreme Court administrator Jose Midas Marquez was also mentioned.
Tulfo is famous for getting implicated with his sister, former Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo, who resigned in May 2018 after a scandal involving funds of the Department of Tourism. Tulfo-Teo’s resignation came after the Commission on Audit questioned the P60 million paid by the Department of Tourism for ad placements on the show of her brothers Ben and Erwin Tulfo.
The IBP Capiz chapter has also come out with a statement joining their colleagues in Iloilo by calling Tulfo’s action against Bermejo as “an attack undermining public confidence to the legal profession and the judiciary.”/PN
