Killing of Filipino judges, lawyers hit

MANILA, Philippines—A member of an international mission has recommended that the Philippine government condemn all forms of attacks against lawyers and judges, and prosecute all perpetrators “with urgency and fervor.”

Jo Dereymaeker, a delegate of the International Verification and Fact Finding Mission (IVFFM) who visited the Philippines last year to investigate the murders of judges and lawyers in the country, presented the mission’s report before the 17th Congress of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Dereymaeker expressed concern over the filing of fabricated charges against lawyers and activists by government prosecutors and other forms of harassment, according to human rights lawyer Edre Olalia, who is attending the congress.

The IADL is an association of democratic lawyers, judges, jurists, law teachers and law students from some 100 countries. The 17th congress, which for its theme “Law and Jurists in the Context of Globalization: For peace, development and independence of judicial activities,” meets until Wednesday.

“The IVFFM strongly called on the Arroyo administration to address the underlying root causes of the extrajudicial killings effectively and to leave no stone unturned in investigating the serious allegations that its own military forces are involved in the killings,” Olalia, an officer of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), said in a statement to the Inquirer. –Jerome Aning, Philippine Daily Inquirer