The News UpFront: (TOP STORY) as of Monday, December 13, 2010
~ He was trying to build up an impressive credential of himself by dropping names of people in and outside government. But the way he articulates is his biggest give-away -- he writes likes a tantrum-throwing, ignorant juvenile who laces his language with racist, vulgar unprintables and makes baseless accusations. Never would anyone believe what he says he is, a lawyer and journalist, and a broadcaster too, because he's too uncouth, unthinking and too careless to be true. Pacifico Aves alias Pex Aves says he has a law office in Los Angeles staffed with at least five "high caliber" lawyers. Well, four of the "lawyers" have no caliber at all and are not listed with the State Bar of California, which could mean he and this group are engaged in some form of scam through misrepresentation.
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| A video of the "lawyer-journalist" is drawing wide interest in the web. |
PACIFICO AVES' GRANDIOSE CLAIMS PROVEN UNTRUE
Alleged 'High Caliber' Lawyers in LA Not in List of Attorneys
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Member, Asian American Journalists Association
TORONTO - Four out of the five reputed "high caliber lawyers" named by a lawyer-journalist impostor as "working" with him in Los Angeles, California are not listed in the State's roll of attorneys.
This information belies the claim of Pacifico Aves, alias Pex Aves -- who also said he's a "broadcaster" -- that he has "the lawyers working with me" at his office which he said "is more than 30 years" old.
Aves, whose dubious claims surfaced in a succession of attack emails haranguing his perceived enemies, identified the five individuals in an email on December 6, 2010 as: Fred Holgado, Atty. Mitch Bushin, Atty. Fred Marallag, Atty. Polie Okoronco and Atty. Ben Onyanaco.
According to Aves, Holgado is a retired Superior Court judge; Bushin, a California State consultant; Marallag, an associate of the late Philippine senator Jose Diokno; and Okoronco, a son of a British ambassador. He did not qualify Onyanaco.
Bushin's name is the only one that appears in the roll provided by the State Bar of California, which lists lawyers in good standing and are practising in the State.
Bushin has a law office in the LA suburb of Van Nuys, maintains his own website and has a published email address as required by the State Bar. He has not responded to inquiries as of this writing to confirm whether it's true or not that he's working with Aves.
It is possible, however, that Aves is providing him with clients through referrals as Aves' purported law office appears to be staffed with non-lawyers like himself.
The names of the four others -- Holgado, Marallag, Okoronco and Onyanaco -- do not appear in the State Bar list. Searches returned no results.
The fact that these four are not listed opens many possibilities. They could be lawyers but are not licensed in California; they could be lawyers only in the Philippines and are working in California as para-legals; or they may have retired from practice and their names used for cosmetic purposes to attract gullible customers.
In any of the cases, the use of their names as bandied by Aves as "high caliber lawyers" working with him could constitute misrepresentation.
The State Bar, an arm of the California Supreme Court, said it is authorized by law to take limited action against non-attorneys "under certain circumstances".
Information about possible unlawful practice of law by an unlicensed individual may be relayed to The State Bar of California, Office of the Chief Trial Counsel, Intake Unit, 1149 S. Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015-2299, Attn: UPL Project or at 1-800-843-9053.
Aves has been boasting about his powerful connections apparently to instill awe and fear among his internet adversaries who came up to the defense of three officials of the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles whom Aves attacked in his online postings.
He listed three congressmen in the Philippines -- Herminio Teves, Miguel Romero and Jerome Paras -- and Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, as his "media references" that can be contacted, presumably to vouch for him.
Aves also claims that he has a son who was previously assistant director of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Intelligence Service and who was recently taken in by the new Philippine Secretary of National Defense. "He's now with DND," he explains.
The authenticity of all the information that Aves claimed and disclosed has not been verified, however.
In another email dated December 7, Aves obliquely admitted that he is not a journalist and writer.
But, he says, he runs and manages a newspaper in the US and in every country where there are Filipinos and where his alleged "global" paper can be found. Later he said the paper had only 50,000 copies circulated weekly in the Los Angeles area.
Among his grandiose claims is his being a "columnist" at the obscure Pinas Global News. "Modesty aside," he writes in his non-punctuated, ungrammatical English-Tagalog monologue, "thousands upon thousands (libo-libo)" wrote to the paper to say they like his writings because they dwell on the average Filipino way of life.
Aves also admitted that he's being fed with information against journalist Bobby Reyes by a certain Rodel Rodis, an official of the moribund National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) in Northern California.
(This Currents & Breaking News may be posted online, broadcast or reprinted upon request by interested parties. Permission by the author and the editor must be obtained before any re-posting online or re-publication in print or re-broadcast. Copyright by Romeo P. Marquez, Editor, The Filipino Web Channel, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Volume 1, Issue no. 1, December 13, 2010. Email at: TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail.com or PhilVoiceNews@aol.com or CurrentsBreakingNews@gmail.com).
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