An organization of lawyers on Tuesday, Nov. 17, expressed concern over the recent killings of their fellow members of the bar.
“There have been just way too many deaths among our own ranks and the biggest irony is that we cannot even get justice ourselves,” said National Union of Peoples Lawyers (NUPL) president Edre Olalia said in a statement.
Olalia issued the statement in response to the deaths of Atty. Eric Jay Magcamit and Manila Judge Maria Teresa Abadilla this month.
The NUPL said that, with the deaths of Abadilla and Magcamit, there are now of 52 lawyers who have been killed under the administration of President Duterte.
“Regardless of the proximate cause, real motive and whole circumstances of the brazen killing of the Manila trial court female judge and of the young Palawan lawyer that must be established credibly, we are distressed once more by these violent deaths that befell our colleagues in the profession,” he said.
Olalia believes that the government should have done a better job in ensuring the safety of lawyers and solving attacks against them.
“By any measure, the buck ultimately stops with the government especially one that has cultivated and enabled a new abnormal of a climate of threat, intimidation and violence in our society and one that has emboldened the attacks on human rights defenders,” he stated.
Magcamit died on Tuesday morning in Narra, Palawan after being gunned down along the National Highway by two unidentified assailants.
While, Abadilla was killed after being shot inside her courtroom at the Manila City Hall last Nov. 11 by her clerk of court, Atty. Amador Rebato, who committed suicide.
It is believed that there have been a total of 53 lawyers who have been killed under the administration of President Duterte.