IBP calls for unity, cooperation to bring justice to victims of violence, killings
MANILA, Philippines — The Integrated Bar of the Philippines called for greater cooperation among law enforcement agencies and justice sector to bring justice to victims of recent acts of crime and violence.
“As sentinel of the Rule of Law, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines condemns suicide bombings that kill and injure persons, ambushes of military and police units, assassinations, tortures/extrajudicial killings of activists and suspects, and all forms of violence inflicted by anyone without due process and beyond legal norms,” the mandatory association of Philippine lawyers said
The IBP made the statement in the wake of the twin bombings in Jolo, Sulu that killed at least 15 and injured 78 others. Authorities branded this as terrorist attack, carried out by Islamist terrorist widows.
The bombing came following the killings of peace consultant Randall Echanis and Karapatan paralegal Zara Alvarez. The Department of Justice’s special task force of cause-oriented killings, as well as the Commission on Human Rights are investigating the killings of Echanis and Alvarez.
In March, the IBP inked an agreement with the Philippine National Police to protect lawyers under threat, following the murder of a 73-year-old lawyer in Nueva Ecija.
“The abuse, impunity, frustrations, desperation, aspirations or hopelessness underlying the continuing violence in our country must be firmly and effectively addressed by government and society as a whole,” the IBP said.
The lawyers’ group said that while they address the root cause of crime and violence, they called on unity and cooperation among law enforcement agencies and justice sectors “to make the perpetrators accountable sooner than later.”
“Delayed, selective, unequal, or twisted justice erodes the rule of law which should be a deterrent to the violence that diminishes all of us,” the IBP stressed. — Kristine Joy Patag
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