SC condemns threats against lawyers, judges

MANILA, Philippines — An assault on members of the legal profession is an assault on the Judiciary, the Supreme Court (SC) said yesterday as it expressed its strong condemnation of the killings and threats against judges and lawyers.

In a statement, SC spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka said the high court – in full session – “condemns in the strongest sense every instance where a lawyer is threatened or killed, and where a judge is threatened and unfairly labeled.”

It added: “We do not and will not tolerate such acts that only perverse justice, defeat the rule of law, undermine the most basic of constitutional principles and speculate on the worth of human lives.”

The SC issued the statement after receiving mounting calls from different lawyer groups such as the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the University of the Philippines College of Law and the Free Legal Assistance Group, as well as those involved in the debates over the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.

“Every right guaranteed in the Constitution must be protected,” the SC said.

“To threaten our judges and our lawyers is no less than an assault on the Judiciary. To assault the Judiciary is to shake the very bedrock on which the rule of law stands. This cannot be allowed in a civilized society like ours. This cannot go undenounced on the Court’s watch,” the magistrates said.

Among the steps to be undertaken by the SC is to ask the lower courts and different law enforcement offices to furnish them with relevant information to shed light on the number and context of each and every threat or killing of a lawyer or judge within the past 10 years.

They also appealed to the public to provide them until April with vetted information on these incidents. The information would be gathered by the SC’s Public Information Office which would submit a report to the justices before they deliberate on the matter in the last week of April.

Based on this information, the SC would decide on whether there is a need to revise existing rules or create new ones.

The SC would also deliberate and promulgate the rules on law enforcers’ use of body cameras when serving arrest warrants and search warrants. But it clarified this would be made without prejudice to their deliberations on whether their rules of procedure would cover the conduct of buy-bust operations in the enforcement of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

The high tribunal has also instructed the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) to coordinate with relevant law enforcement agencies and investigate the reports that Mandaluyong City Regional Trial Court Judge Monique Quisumbing-Ignacio has been red-tagged in a tarpaulin posted along Shaw EDSA.

The OCA would also conduct a survey among trial court and Shari’a court judges on the extent of threats they have received for the past 10 years, and assured them they would be provided with security and counseling.

The justices also gave recognition to judges and lawyers who did not cower in fear and continued to administer justice. “Let there be no doubt, the Supreme Court stands with them,” it said.

“The Supreme Court calls upon the entire Judiciary and all members of the legal profession to remain strong, steadfast and unwavering in the duties they swore an oath to fulfill. At no more fitting time than now should the Judiciary remain undaunted, with a clear vision of taking courage, enforcing the law and upholding the supremacy of the Constitution,” it added.