Kapunan opens up about her controversial clients

Lawyer Lorna Kapunan is known to be a staunch defender of women’s rights, with a number of pro-bono cases for women and children under her belt. Ironically, among her clients were James Yap and Hayden Kho, both of whom were accused of violating women's rights.

“We women are very intuitive and you combine that with the knowledge of law, and I feel challenged when I see that there is abuse on the part of some people,” Kapunan, who is running for Senator, said on Headstart Monday.

She added that while many women probably still hate her for taking the Kho case, their appearance in the Senate has indeed aided in legislation, with the authoring and passing of the Anti-Voyeurism Law.

Despite her clients’ high-profile cases, she has exuded maternal compassion for them—to the point that both Yap and Kho called her ‘mother.’

In 2013, Kris Aquino, Yap’s estranged wife, filed for temporary protection order against Yap due to “overt sexual advances.” But Kapunan maintained that the charges were meant “to deprive him of parental authority, to make him consent to signing the adoption forms,” after their son, Bimby, became illegitimate following the annulment of Aquino and Yap’s marriage in 2012.

Kho, on the other hand, earned his infamy after videos of him and actress Katrina Halili and other women surfaced. Kapunan claimed even talent manager Lolit Solis admitted that the entire fiasco was a play to boost the popularity of Halili and Sen. Bong Revilla, who was allegedly eyeing the vice-presidency then.

Before accepting Kho as her client, she says she had him do three things: apologize to Halili, apologize to women in general, and get psychological counselling—all of which Hayden agreed to and accomplished.

Kapunan has also organized for a press conference for Coco Martin to apologize to groups of women after his controversial modelling stint.

On dropping Janet Napoles

Kapunan also represented Janet Lim-Napoles for the serious illegal detention charges, but had to drop her for "lying."

“If you can lie to your own lawyer, you can lie to the whole world. When we figured that she was not being truthful without hesitation [we dropped her],” she said.

Kapunan said she believes Napoles is guilty of being in the system but did not invent the multi-million scam.

Family is not a campaign gimmick

Despite being in the limelight and tagged as a ‘celebrity lawyer,’ much of Kapunan’s personal life remains unknown to many.

She has lost her husband to colon cancer in 2001 and lost her son to leukemia two years after. She describes both to be tragic, but believes the loss of her son is definitely more difficult. Hence, she joined forces with Gina De Venecia and Ali Sotto in establishing Inang Naulila sa Anak (INA) Foundation, a support-group for mothers who lost their children.

“There are mothers in Tacloban who have lost children, and I can relate to that, but I will never use it as a campaign gimmick, to say that ‘I have lost my son.’ No. I will not use anything as a campaign gimmick when it involves my family. You can hit me, but as soon as you hit my family, you’re dead.”

She agrees that talks on same-sex unions must be started and process for annulment must be made more efficient and affordable.

Kapunan is also against the imposition of death penalty, citing inefficiency of the current justice system. Kapunan also laments the slow pace of court proceedings, citing her gender discrimination case with the employees of Philippine Airlines. She hopes to rectify this when elected a senate seat.

Kapunan is in the senatorial slate of Grace Poe.