NUPL cites attacks vs. judges, lawyers in complaint before UN
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines remains a dangerous place for lawyers and judges, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers said in a complaint to the office of United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Lawyers and Judges Margaret Satterthwaite.
This comes as Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla is expected to again lead the high-level Philippine government delegation as the United Nations Human Rights Council conducts its 5th universal periodic review on the Philippines on Monday, November 14, in Geneva.
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In its complaint, the NUPL urged the council to hold the Philippine government accountable for what it said were the well-documented violations against the legal profession and its failure to fulfill its obligations as a duty bearer under international and domestic human rights laws.
“These attacks on officers of the court have to stop once and for all. If lawyers are hampered from freely and independently exercising their profession and if judges are threatened for their judicial decisions, access to justice and judicial independence will suffer,” NUPL secretary general Josalee Deinla said in the complaint.
Data on attacks vs lawyers
In the past 15 years, NUPL said it recorded 86 killings of lawyers, judges and prosecutors. From a total of 262 work-related attacks, 67% percent took place under the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte. Five of the victims of killings were NUPL members whose clients include indigenous peoples, peasants, farmers, workers, environment advocates, political prisoners and human rights defenders.
Some 61% of the attacks on lawyers appear to be linked to the handling of human rights and public interest cases, as well as providing services to human rights defenders and civil society groups. Fifty-nine out of the 133 killings recorded since 1984 also occurred during the Duterte administration, most of which are unsolved.
The latest lawyer to be killed was Juan Macababbad, vice-chairperson of the SOCCSKSARGEN chapter of the NUPL affiliate Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao. Macababbad received death threats days before he was gunned down outside his house in Surallah, South Cotabato on September 15, 2021 by unidentified assailants.
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Red-tagging
"The harassment of lawyers and judges has gone unabated under the succeeding Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration," NUPL said, pointing to members of the NUPL being red-tagged with Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar, the Manila trial court judge who dismissed the government's proscription petition against communist rebels.
The group also said that its lawyers were continuously being branded as “urban operatives” of the underground communist movement while the NUPL itself has been accused without basis of being a “communist terrorist group” by law enforcement authorities.
NUPL lawyers handling public interest cases in the provinces have also been subjected to surveillance by suspected military agents at their homes, offices and even in courts. — Franco Luna with a report from Kristine Joy Patag
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