Pattern in killings of lawyers, judges affirmed

There is a pattern of killing lawyers and judges mostly involved in human rights-related cases in the country, an international fact-finding mission affirmed yesterday.

"Lawyers and judges in the Philippines have been threatened and killed especially since the beginning of last year. A remarkable number of these lawyers and judges has been involved in human rights-related cases," said Judge Jan Bless, spokesman of the international fact-finding mission (IFFM).

According to the IFFM, some authorities have even confirmed the practice of labeling such lawyers as "enemies of the government." The group did not elaborate.

"There is a pattern of real disgusting types of threats and cowardly killings. Witnesses seem to be afraid to testify out of fear," the group said in its report.

The finding was part of the initial report of the eight-member IFFM.

Bless, of the District Court of Harlem in the Netherlands, along with seven other lawyers and judges from Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Antwerp, Belgium conducted the fact-finding mission from June 16 to 20.

The IFFM said it would quickly report their findings to lawyers’ organizations in the Netherlands and Belgium, which organized the mission.

"There should be no doubt that the findings will be promptly brought to the attention of the international media, the European Commission and the United Nations. The killings must be stopped," the IFFM stressed.

"There is a growing international concern about the problems human rights lawyers in the Philippines seem to face in the free and independent exercise of their profession," it pointed out.

Since March last year, at least nine Philippine lawyers and one judge have been killed. Increasingly, lawyers and judges have also become victims of harassment and intimidation.

"Threatening lawyers and judges makes their work completely impossible. To this date, no killers of lawyers and judges have been convicted," the IFFM noted.

The IFFM also cited that concerned government bodies have not provided them with satisfactory information with respect to the very slow handling of such cases.

These include the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Supreme Court, Department of Justice (DOJ) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

"In addition, we just want to share with you important pieces of information we received (last June 22) from DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno wherein he told us he was not or was hardly aware of the killings of human rights lawyers," the group said in its report.

"When we discussed the Usig task force, he (Puno) promised to specifically add to the competence of the Usig task force the investigation into the killing of lawyers and to provide security protection in cases needed."

The IFFM said Puno also invited organizations of human rights lawyers to particularly state cases they want to add to the Usig list.

The DILG created Task Force Usig to investigate the killings of activists in response to the growing number of these murders.

Bless said they will submit next month their report to the Dutch Lawyers for Lawyers Foundation which organized the mission together with the Dutch Foundation Lawyers without Borders and with the support of the Amsterdam Bar Association and the Netherlands Bar Association, which funded their fact-finding mission.

The IFFM said the fact-finding mission was organized because these groups were alarmed by the information from the international media about the lawyers and judges being killed or threatened in the Philippines.

"We would like to know why these killings occur. We want to know for ourselves what is really happening because we are reading from media reports about murdered lawyers and judges," Bless said.

"The mission wishes to stress the vital importance of a free and independent exercise of practice by lawyers and judges. Every government should protect its lawyers and judges and every government should publicly condemn every attack on these lawyers and judges," the IFFM said.

Bless’ group interviewed victims and relatives of the lawyers and judges, who were either killed or harassed in Quezon City, Manila and Tacloban City in Leyte.

Also interviewed were the president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban and representatives of various human rights and lawyers’ groups in the country.

IBP president Anselmo Cadiz said international pressure would likely encourage the government to curb and eradicate attacks against lawyers and judges in the country.