Lawyer Amando Virgil Ligutan’s long fight for freedom and accountability has led him to the historic impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
You know him as the “good operator” routinely teaching the nation how investigations should be conducted in the first few days of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
You know his sense of humor from him viral effects to the objections of Duterte’s lawyer Carlo Narvasa, and you may also have read his profile from the SALiGAL Law website.
But there is more to top lawyer Amando Virgil D. Ligutan than his recent Senate performance suggests.
A tireless defender
Ligutan has always been an active defender of people’s rights.
On May 26, 2023, police detained Maria Victoria “Bambi” Burdeos Beltran at General Arcadio Maxilom Camp in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City, where she slept on a hard wooden bench outside the office of the Cebu Provincial Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (CIDG-PFU).
Bambi Beltran is a legend in Cebu’s art and advocacy community – an award-winning artist, writer and photographer who is now famous. it is closed Kukuk’s Nest in Cebu City, no recipient of the 2020 Deutsche Welle (DW) Freedom of Speech award.
The May 2023 arrest It was Beltran’s third brush with the law. The first arrest occurred on April 19, 2020, because of his satirical Facebook post about the COVID-19 situation in Sitio Zapatera that angered the late Cebu City Mayor Edgar Labella.
The second arrest came on August 12, 2020, in a cyber defamation case filed by April Dequito.
Ligutan took over Beltran’s case, helping him handle bail and making sure he got an order for his release minutes before the closing hours of the Cebu Regional Trial Court. By August 2025, all cases were dismissed.
In 2017, Ligutan was a key figure in the prosecution of Niño Rey Boniel, the former mayor of the town of Bien Unido in Bohol, who pleaded guilty to the murder of his wife Gisela Bendong-Boniel.
The lawyer worked with Gisela’s family to avenge their missing daughter. Presiding Judge Christine Muga-Abad of the Lapu-Lapu Regional Court Branch 70 sentenced Niño Rey to eight years and one day to 14 years in prison.
Brawler for civil liberties
There was no issue on which Ligutan would remain silent. Even before the Bambi and Boniel cases, Ligutan had been outspoken on major issues such as non-renewable of ABS-CBN Franchise in 2020.
“When you justify the non-renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise with any legal jargon you can think of, for whatever motivation to do so, know that some people affected by the closure may only have this motivation: to work so that they can provide food for their children, education for them, and the hope of having a better future than the present,” Ligutan said.
In the war against drugs, Ligutan had called them hypocrisy of supporters of the Duterte administration who felt “safe” in the midst of the indiscriminate killings at the time.
“I stand with the families of the victims of extrajudicial killings. I stand with the children left orphaned by the government’s brutal war on drugs. I stand with those whose loved ones were summarily killed and denied due process,” Ligutan said.
The defense of a good lawyer also extended to his colleagues in the legal profession. Not long ago, Ligutan defended the Lawyers Protection program after two lawyers were killed in separate attacks at the end of 2020.
“This is a long-term program that will help our fellow lawyers who feel they need protection against the threats they see or receive. It has three main steps: Threat Assessment; Evacuation; and Local Security,” he said.
But when it comes to young people, Ligutan has a certain soft spot.
The lawyer taught labor law, remedial law, public international law, among others, mentoring young nomads at the University of the Philippines, San Jose-Recoletos University of Law, and the University of Cebu School of Law.
To him, law students are “a different breed.”
“There is no greater satisfaction than when a student finally sits down after successfully memorizing. The natural high it gives would last for days,” Ligutan said.
After educating the nation on how a proper investigation is conducted, it is not surprising to 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
