How should the Code of Professional Responsibility be applied by the Court

The court should apply the Code of Professional Responsibility and provide an ethical compass to lawyers who, in the pursuit of the profession, often find themselves in the unchartered sea of conflicting ideas and interests. There is certainly, without exception, no profession in which so many temptations beset the path to swerve from the line of strict integrity; in which so many delicate and difficult questions of duty are continually arising. The Code of Professional Responsibility establishes the norms of conduct and ethical standards in the legal profession and the Court must not shirk from its duty to ensure that all lawyers live up to its provisions. Moreover, the Court must not tolerate any departure from the “straight and narrow” path demanded by the ethics of the legal profession and enjoin all lawyers to be like Caesar’s wife – to be pure and appear to be so. (Abragan vs. Rodriguez, 380 SCRA 93 [2001]; PCGG vs. SB, et al., supra.).