The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) on Thursday, Nov. 26, expressed gratitude to those who helped in efforts in identifying and charging those who are believed behind the killing of a lawyer in Palawan this month.
(MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
“We appreciate and commend the swift action and all those who helped bring the murderers before the bar of justice,” IBP President Domingo Egon Cayosa said in a statement.
The IBP president is referring to the murder case of Atty. Eric Jaay Magcamit, 35, who was gunned down last Nov. 17 along National Highway in Barangay Malinao in Narra, Palawan.
Through IBP’s Lawyer Security Program, Cayosa said that “IBP leaders at the national and provincial levels and his brother- lawyers have been quietly in touch with his bereaved family and have coordinated with intelligence, law enforcement, investigation, and prosecution agencies.”
“We are working for similar results in the more recent killing of Atty. Joey Luis Wee in Cebu City,” Cayosa said.
Wee was gunned down by two unidentified assailants while walking to his office in Barangay Kasambagan last Monday, Nov. 23.
“Beyond the consistent condemnation and justified outrage, we must act resolutely on lawyer-killings because violence against judges, prosecutors, lawyers and our fellow-workers in the justice sector mocks and erodes the rule of law. For if those who administer justice are themselves killed with impunity, how can the ordinary citizen believe in due process or feel safe and secure?” said Cayosa.
“As Filipino lawyers do their sworn duty, we seek the vigilance, cooperation, and involvement of all sectors. Justice, and ultimately peace, are everyone’s business,” he urged.
The IBP president reminded that there are “other lawyer-killings that remain unsolved by law enforcers or unresolved in the courts of law.”
Because of this, Cayosa urged everyone to “promptly finish the long-pending cases, pass the much-needed remedial laws and rules, enforce the law fairly and without favor.”