Before the Sara Duterte trial: Amando Virgil Ligutan’s crusade vs injustice

SUMMARY This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article. You know him as “the smooth operator” casually teaching the nation how a cross-examination ought to be done during the first few days of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial. You know his humorous demeanor from his viral reactions to Duterte lawyer Carlo Narvasa’s objections, and you might have also read his profile from SALiGAL Law’s website. But there’s more to high-profile lawyer Amando Virgil D. Ligutan than his recent Senate performance suggests. Tireless defender Ligutan has always been an astute defender of people’s rights. On May 26, 2023, police detained Maria Victoria “Bambi” Burdeos Beltran at Camp General Arcadio Maxilom in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City, where she spent the night on a hard wooden bench outside the office of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Cebu Provincial Field Unit (CIDG-PFU). Bambi Beltran is a legend in Cebu’s art and advocacy community — an award-winning artist, writer, and owner of the iconic but now closed Kukuk’s Nest in Cebu City, and the recipient of the 2020 Deutsche Welle (DW) Freedom of Speech award. The May 2023 arrest was Beltran’s third brush with the law. The first arrest happened on April 19, 2020, due to her satirical Facebook post on the COVID-19 situation in Sitio Zapatera that had enraged the late Cebu City Mayor Edgar Labella. The second arrest came on August 12, 2020, on a cyber-libel case filed by an April Dequito. Ligutan took Beltran’s case, assisting her in processing bail and ensuring she got her release order just minutes before the Cebu City Regional Trial Court’s closing hours. As of August 2025, all cases were dismissed. In 2017, Ligutan was a central figure in the prosecution against Niño Rey Boniel, former mayor of Bien Unido town in Bohol, who pleaded guilty for the killing of his wife Gisela Bendong-Boniel. The lawyer worked with Gisela’s family to avenge their lost daughter. Presiding Judge Christine Muga-Abad of the Lapu-Lapu Regional Trial Court Branch 70 sentenced Niño Rey to eight years and one day to 14 years imprisonment. Brawler for civil liberties There is no issue that Ligutan would stay silent on. Even before the Bambi and Boniel cases, Ligutan had always been outspoken on major issues like the non-renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise in 2020. “While you justify the non-renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise with whatever legal jargon you can think of, with whatever motivation for doing so, know that some people affected by the closure may only have this motivation: work so they can provide food for their children, education for them, and hope they might have a future brighter than the present,” Ligutan said. On the war on drugs, Ligutan had called out the hypocrisy of supporters of the Duterte administration who felt “safe” amid the spate of extrajudicial killings then. “I stand with the families of the victims of extrajudicial killings. I stand with the children left orphaned by the government’s ruthless war on drugs. I stand with those whose loved ones were summarily executed and deprived of due process,” Ligutan said. The good lawyer’s advocacy also extended to his peers in the legal profession. Not too long ago Ligutan advocated for a program for Lawyers’ Protection after two lawyers were killed in separate attacks in late 2020. “This is a long term program that will help our fellow lawyers who feel they need protection from the threats they perceive or actually receive. It has three main stages: Threat Assessment; Relocation; and Close-in security,” he said. But when it comes to the youth, Ligutan has a particular soft spot. The lawyer taught labor law, remedial law, public international law, among others, cultivating young mooters at the University of the Philippines College of Law, University of San Jose-Recoletos School of Law, and University of Cebu School of Law. For him, law students are a “different breed.” “There’s no satisfaction greater than when a student finally sits down after a successful recitation. The natural high it gives would last for days,” Ligutan said. After schooling the nation on how a proper cross-examination is done, it comes as no surprise for some Cebuanos that the lawyer would receive his flowers. After all, Ligutan’s philosophy has always been: “If there’s even a 1% chance [of winning]. Fight.” – Rappler.com How does this make you feel?