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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Lawyers group anticipates more arrests vs red-tagged activists

Lawyers group anticipates more arrests vs red-tagged activists

Published Dec 23, 2020 02:04 pm

An organization of lawyers on Wednesday (Dec. 23) said it is anticipating another wave of arrest against red-tagged activists whom it expects will also be slapped with trumped up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

(MANILA BULLETIN)
(MANILA BULLETIN)

The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) said in a statement that “it received raw reports that police are supposedly poised to embark on another series of arbitrary arrests in the dead of the night premised on the implementation of predesigned search warrants for ambulant firearms and explosives based on tall tales of dubious ‘informants’.”
 
Maintaining that the civil society network of its clients is in no way connect to the armed communist movement or gun running syndicate, the NUPL warned law enforcement who will be implementing the search warrants against planting evidence.
 
“The NUPL maintains that such sham practices by law enforcement agents of the state are totally incompatible with a free and democratic society,” the group stated.
 
Meanwhile, the NUPL said “our clients, their constituents, and allies, are keeping their ears close to the ground and are keenly aware of your tired old modus of planting evidence, have been advised to be vigilant”
 
“Thus, to persist in violating the sanctity of their abodes or offices and to still magically conjure firearms and explosives from such unwelcome intrusion shall, for all purposes, be regarded by the NUPL as a farce,” the group said.
 
“Make no mistake about it. Our clients have been apprised of your tricks and crude scripts and they have been advised on how to assert their rights. We will muster all legal means to throw the book at you and marshall all our local and foreign legal networks to ensure this,” the NUPL warned law enforcement who will be conducting the arrests,” it also stressed.

On the other hand, the NUPL said the same hand ordering the arrests of red-tagged activists should also be blamed for the killing of Sonia Gregorio, 53, and her son Frank Anthony, 25, who were shot by Police Staff Sgt. Jonel Nuezca in their neighborhood in Paniqui, Tarlac over the weekend.
  
“The jolt sent by the video of the Gregorios being shot point blank by a monster has pushed people to hold the entire police force to account. The jeers thrown at the government’s desperate bid to downplay the incident as an isolated event reveal the bankruptcy of its credibility from the point of view of a population that has long grappled with the dissonance of supposedly living under a system of laws and constantly cowering in fear of arbitrary arrests and cold-blooded murder in the hands of agents of the state,” the group stated.
 

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