RP fails in fight versus extrajudicial killings of lawyers, judges–report

An independent group of Dutch lawyers group has scored the Philippine government for its failure to stop extrajudicial killings, particularly those involving judges and lawyers.

In a report, the group called Lawyers for Lawyers (L4L) noted that the number of extrajudicial killings in the country may have declined, but government measures to end the impunity have not stopped the bleeding.

The report entitled “International Verification and Fact Finding Mission [IVFFM] on Attacks against Filipino Lawyers and Judges” is a continuation of the first mission sent by group to the Philippines in June 2006.

It states that although the exact number of killed Filipino lawyers and judges could not be determined, it has recorded nine lawyers and three judges killed between 2007 and 2008. Moreover, the L4L received a report on the killing of the fourth judge on December 7, 2008, just after it concluded its mission in the Philippines. The group sent a team of eight judges and lawyers from Belgium and The Netherlands in November 2008 to look into the killings and harassment of their Filipino colleagues.

The report, which was presented by the Philippine Ambassador in The Netherlands, Romeo Arguelles, to the Philippine Embassy in The Hague on June 4, said, “Lawyers and judges in the Philippines are still threatened, intimidated and killed as a consequence of which they encounter difficulties in carrying out legal profession,”

“Some of them are tagged as enemy of the state, especially lawyers who represent clients who are accused of being a supporter or a member of the New People’s Army,” it added.

The group also found that besides the extrajudicial killings, a new method of harassment has been introduced to target lawyers such as lodging fabricated criminal charges, thus undermining the rule of law in the Philippines, on top of the unabated threats against judges and lawyers thru text messages and e-mail.

In general, there does not seem to be any sense of urgency amongst the Philippine authorities to see that justice is done and that the lives and the independence of the lawyers and judges involved are protected according to the group, with 22 lawyers and 15 judges being murdered just in 2001 and only one person being convicted for the killings so far (in 2006).

The L4L held interviews and conferences in Quezon City, Manila and Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao with lawyers and judges, the families of those who were slain, representatives of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Philippine civil society organizations and human rights advocates like Amnesty International, Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates, as well as government agencies such as departments of Interior and Local Government, Justice, Philippine National Police, Task Force USIG, National Bureau of Investigation, Office of the Ombudsman, Commission on Human Rights, Supreme Court, Senate and the House of Representatives.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Melo Commission, however, declined the group’s invitation. –Llanesca T. Panti, Manila Times