The Supreme Court (SC) has been asked to create a committee to craft ways and means to protect the country’s lawyers from harassments, assaults and even deaths.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
In a letter to Chief Justice Diosdado M. Peralta and the 14 other justices, Dean Edgardo Carlo Vistan II of the University of the Philippines College of Law cited not only the assaults and killings of lawyers but also their red-tagging.
Vistan also told the SC of the attempt of a police officer to get from a trial court a list of lawyers representing suspected members of the Communist Terror Group (CTG).
Several lawyers’ groups have said that more than 60 lawyers, including prosecutors and judiciary members, have been killed since 2016.
Vistan suggested the creation and convening of a Special Committee to Protect Lawyers which will be headed by a senior SC justice with representatives from the trial courts, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, lawyers’ networks, and the legal academe.
In a letter electronically filed last Tuesday, Vistan said:
“We do believe that this Court is vested with sufficient power under the Constitution to protect its officers, including lawyers, prosecutors, and judges, as well as its staff and personnel from such threats, intimidation, and even killings.
“For this reason, we now seek the Court’s intervention to protect its lawyers, its officers, and to ensure that the administration of justice is not held hostage by threats, pressure, and intimidation by yet unidentified people acting with impunity.”
He underscored the “urgency” of his plea because the threats and killings of lawyers are “directly detrimental to the independence of the Judiciary and the role of lawyers in ensuring fairness and justice in the Judiciary’s work.”
The SC has yet to respond to Vistan’s suggestion.