Part One of the Series on “Why Lewis and Rodis Are Two Dumb Lawyers”

By Bobby Reyes

Founding President,

Bicolnons Ostracizing, and Running After, Thieves (BORAT) in the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFAA)

T wo Filipino-American lawyers, Loida Nicolas-Lewis and Rodel Rodis, are graduates of the University of the Philippines’ College of Law. Mr. Rodis is said to be the NaFFAA’s general counsel and Ms. Nicolas is the chairperson emeritus of the NaFFAA. Both of them were admitted to the California and New York Bar, respectively. But readers can conclude that both lawyers are dumb attorneys, as people can gather from a press release that the two apparently engineered (in an obvious manner, as Mr. Rodis e-mailed it to several of his fellow NaFFAA clique members and Ms. Lewis sent it online to Joseph G. Lariosa and Lito Gajilan).

Mr. Lariosa is the Chicago-based dean of Filipino correspondents in the United States. Mr. Gajilan is the Jersey City-based publisher of the Filipino Express newspaper.

Why Are Lewis and Rodis Dumb Attorneys?

W hy are Loida Lewis and Rodel Rodis dumb lawyers? Consider a statement in the press release, which is reproduced in its entirety at the end of this article:

QUOTE. Marquez was formerly based in San Diego, California until he was deported by US authorities for engaging in marriage fraud. He blamed NaFFAA for reporting him to the immigration authorities. UNQUOTE.

The mentioning of “marriage fraud” is a completely-unfounded allegation, if not a hearsay piece of crap. If Atty. Lewis and Atty. Rodis have the facts, then they should have stated the case number(s) and other particular details of the supposed “marriage fraud” committed by Mr. Marquez.

For a fact, Mr. Marquez went from San Diego, California, straight to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If Atty. Lewis and Atty. Rodis are smart lawyers (and supposedly brilliant “immigration attorneys”), they ought to know that a person who is deported from the United States is sent back to his/her country of origin. Since Mr. Marquez remains a Filipino citizen, why was he not “deported” to the Philippines and not barred from going to Canada? It is elementary, Mr. Watson. Mr. Marquez migrated to Canada and he was not “deported” by the United States immigration officers.

A Fourth-year Ateneo Law Student Is Better than Lawyers Lewis and Rodis Combined

B obby Reyes reached only the fourth-year law proper at the Ateneo de Manila College of Law. But it seems that Bobby has a better understanding of law than Loida Lewis and Rodel Rodis. Proof?

When Bobby Reyes wrote about a complaint filed against Atty. Rodis by one of his (Rodis’s) clients, the case number and other details of the case were stated in the report. Here is Reyes’s report that was published on Aug. 2, 2007:

QUOTE.

A tty. Rodis has also sought the protection of the bankruptcy court even before Mr. Menor did. These are the details of how Atty. Rodis was forced to file for bankruptcy protection per the tip that a Filipino-American community leader sent to the www.mabuhayradio.com. A malpractice suit (Case Number CGC-96-979206) was filed against Atty. Rodel Rodis on June 24, 1996. The Superior Court of San Francisco found Atty. Rodis guilty of malpractice and negligence in the handling the case of his client, Cecilia Tameta. On July 10, 1998, there was a Notice of Entry of Judgment in, which ordered Mr. Rodis to pay Ms. Tameta $137,250 plus costs. Since Atty. Rodis did not have any malpractice insurance, he filed for bankruptcy and on Oct. 26, 2000, he filed a notice of pending bankruptcy and stay of state court action. The www.mabuhayradio.com made a quick online query and found the Register of Actions in the CGC-96-979206 case. The record can be accessed at this link: http://www.sftc.org/Scripts/Magic94/mgrqispi94.dll or please just go to www.sftc.org and type in the case-number 979206 in the inquiry button. UNQUOTE.

The documented report about Atty. Rodis’s malpractice misadventure can be read in its entirety in this hyperlink:

The NaFFAA Is in Turmoil: Rodis Continues to Commit Political Suicide.

A nd once again, Bobby Reyes showed to the public how investigative reporting is done. One does not publish hearsay but comes up with facts. Solid facts.

Since this exposé is getting long, we will break this special report into several segments. Part Two will discuss the Ballygate Scandal and then some of the other unfounded but malicious allegations of Atty. Rodis and/or Atty. Lewis, as told to a certain alleged reporter, Marian Rodriguez. Both Loida Lewis and Rodel Rodis must remember the adage, “It is elementary, Mr. Watson,” for they are lawyers and not mere elementary pupils. They cannot fool the public, especially Filipino Americans, by issuing baseless and false accusations against their critics.

H ere are the e-mails from Atty. Lewis and Atty. Rodis as they distributed with malice the press release written allegedly by Marian Rodriguez that contained the libelous allegations against Bobby Reyes and Romy Marquez:

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: "loida834@tmo.blackberry.net" (loida834@tmo.blackberry.net)
To: Joseph G Lariosa (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net); Lito Gajilan (litogajilan@yahoo.com)
Cc: Rodel Rodis (rodel50@aol.com)
Sent: Sun, November 21, 2010 9:31:48 AM
Subject: Fw: NaFFAA delegates Respond to Reyes

FYI.
Loida

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

From: Rodel Rodis (rodel50@aol.com)

Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2010 21:28:58 -0500

To: Rodel50@aol.com; Ludyongkeko@aol.com; lornadietzpr@gmail.com; loida834@tmo.blackberry.net; MMSI13@aol.com; benmenor@yahoo.com

Subject: NaFFAA delegates Respond to Reyes

QUOTE.

NaFFAA DELEGATES RESPOND TO LATEST BOBBY REYES ATTACKS

By Marian Rodriguez

SAN FRANCISCO – Delegates attending the 8th National Empowerment Conference of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Burlingame reacted to the latest cyber-attack of perennial NaFFAA critic Bobby Reyes with a collective “what else is new?” yawn.

“Bobby “BoRat” Reyes always revs up his attacks during a NaFFAA national conference as he wants delegates to be talking about him,” said Rodel Rodis, NaFFAA general counsel. “He suffers from what you would call ‘kulang sa pansin’” (attention deficit disorder).

Rodis explained that Reyes began his “unholy jihad” against NaFFAA in August 2000 at the 3rd National Empowerment Conference at the Bally Hotel in Las Vegas when he ran for the post of Southern California chair. Reyes lost to Mark Pullido, 78 to 38, even though he expected to win because he brought 35 delegates from Los Angeles with him and paid their conference fees.

When Reyes lost, he accused NaFFAA’s officials of cheating him of the post because 20 student volunteers from Southern California were allowed to vote without paying conference fees. Reyes called it the “Ballygate Scandal” as he rejected the explanation of NaFFAA officials that it had already been agreed before the conference that delegate fees would be waived for student volunteers.

“Even if the votes of the student volunteers had been excluded, he still would have lost despite his hakot,” Rodis explained. “He’s just a sore loser.”

Reyes’ electoral defeat at the 2000 NaFFAA conference, which was held at the Bally Hotel in Las Vegas, caused him to accuse NaFFAA officials of involvement in what he labeled the “Ballygate Scandal”.  He called then NaFFAA national chair Loida Nicolas-Lewis “Snow White” and the other national officials as her “seven dwarfs”.

After the NaFFAA national conference in San Jose, California in 2002, Reyes charged that NaFFAA had committed “financial irregularities” and said that he reported the Federation to the IRS and to the Attorney-General of the state of California so that the organization would be dissolved and its leaders sent to prison.

Even though his charges have been repeatedly rejected by the IRS and California state authorities over the last 8 years, Reyes has persisted in lobbing his charges against NaFFAA. This year he has directed his charges against NaFFAA to the Attorney-General of the state of New Jersey.

In a “breaking news” article written by his Toronto-based cohort, Romeo Marquez, (“NaFFAA's Alleged Scams Probed in New Jersey”), Reyes claimed that the “corrupt controlling clique" of the NaFFAA “will try to resuscitate the organization from its painful and slow demise at another of its so-called empowerment conference in San Francisco. As it goes down and out, authorities in New Jersey took the initial step to investigate NaFFAA for alleged violations of federal and state laws related to its fund-raising ventures.”

Although Reyes has accused NaFFAA of wrongdoing, it is Reyes who was found by a Los Angeles civil jury of engaging in defamation against Lourdes Ongkeko who was awarded civil damages that is now in excess of $20,000. In an order of examination deposition in 2006, Reyes admitted that his son, who lives with him, owes the IRS more than $500,000 in taxes from debts totaling more than $4M.

Marquez was formerly based in San Diego, California until he was deported by US authorities for engaging in marriage fraud. He blamed NaFFAA for reporting him to the immigration authorities.

“It’s sad but Reyes and Marquez will never stop their jihad against NaFFAA until they succeed in killing NaFFAA out of pure spite” Rodis said.

Reyes and Marquez are backed by a San Jose group appropriately called CRABS (“Citizens Rebelling Against Bonus Spending”).

Despite the cyber attacks against NaFFAA, the 13 year-old national organization, considered the voice of Filipinos in America, managed to successfully conclude its national conference with the unanimous election of Ed Navarra of Troy, Michigan as the new national chair and J.T. Malonga from New York City as national vice-chair. Brendan Flores from Las Vegas, Nevada was elected by the NaFFAA youth delegates as the new National Youth Chair.

UNQUOTE.

(To be continued . . .)