An Attack on Any Lawyer is an Attack on the Legal Profession And on Human Rights

An Attack on Any Lawyer is an Attack on the Legal Profession And on Human Rights

National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers ( NUPL ) –PHILIPPINES: by Edre Olalia, Deputy Secretary General for International Solidarity Work

Haldane Society Lecture: "DEFENDING HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS IN COLOMBIA AND THE PHILIPPINES". 10 December 2009, College of Law, 14 Store Street, London

Who are we and what do we do?Who are we and what do we do?

How are we attacked?

We just lost two of our most vocal and courageous members in the

Maguindanao massacre last November 23, 2009.

ATTY. CONCEPCION BRIZUELAATTY. CYNTHIA OQUENDO

Killed: Atty. Juvy Magsino•Counsel for progressive organizations, local vice mayor, vocal against military abuses and mining projects causing damage to the people.

•Shot and peppered with bullets on February 2004 while driving together with a human rights advocate

Killed: Atty. Arbet Yongco

•Private lawyer prosecuting a parricide case against a cult leader belonging to a powerful family.

•Shot October 2004 inside her own home.

Killed: Atty. Felidito Dacut

•Counsel for labor unions and progressive organizations.

•Shot March 2005 while inside a passenger jeepney on his way to buy milk for his 3-year old daughter.

Killed: Judge Henrick Gingoyon

•Trial court judge handling a controversial case against the government over an anomalous airport project. Formerly active in counseling for peoples’ organizations.

•Gunned down on New Year’s Eve 2005 while on his way home.

Killed: Atty. Gil Gojol•Former local public official, former bar president, professor and legal counsel of progressive party-list groups and peoples’ organizations.

•Gunned down December 2006, by four armed men on board two motorcycles.

Atty. Trixie Cruz-Angeles

•Under close surveillance since December 2007.

•Represents soldiers who are facing charges for alleged failed uprisings against Arroyo in 2003 and 2006.

Threat, Harassment, Intimidation, and Surveillance

Atty. Emil Bermas

•Accused as a member of the New People’s Army.

•Became less active for security reasons when army general notorious for killings was assigned in their area. His three guard dogs were fatally poisoned.

Threat, Harassment, Surveillance, and Labeling

Judge Romeo T. Capulong

•Judge ad litem for the United Nations International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia; foremost human rights lawyer in the Philippines handling several high-profile cases.

•Subjected to four separate assassination attempts

Assassination Attempts, Harassment, Surveillance, and Labeling

Atty. Emiliano Deleverio

•Has been under surveillance, threatened, and harassed by military agents since 2005.

•Human rights, criminal, and peasant lawyer who handles most human rights cases in a region in southern Philippines.

Threat, Harassment, Intimidation, and Surveillance

Atty. Rex Fernandez

•Received death threats and has been put under surveillance.

•Human rights lawyer and legal counsel of a human rights organization and high profile cases of the disappeared and tortured

Harassment and Surveillance

Atty. Alberto Hidalgo•Harassed and put under surveillance by suspected state agents.

• Represented the survivors of a massacre of peasants by the military.

Harassment and Surveillance

Atty. Beverly Musni

•Under surveillance for the past two years by suspected military agents; named in the military’s Order of Battle.

•Labor Arbiter and works with several mass and peoples’ organizations

Harassment, Labeling, and Surveillance

Atty. Edre Olalia

•Periodically under surveillance by suspected state agents, and linked to the communists.

•Human rights, international humanitarian law, and criminal lawyer; handles cases of the marginalized sectors, political prisoners, and rights victims.

Surveillance and Labeling

Atty. Jobert Pahilga

•Subjected to surveillance, harassment, and intimidation by state agents.

•Human rights lawyer, providing free legal services to farmers, fisherfolk, and indigenous peoples.

Harassment, Intimidation, Surveillance, and Labeling

Atty. Tirsendo Poloyapoy

•Experienced different forms of harassment such as labeling, death threats, abduction of one of his security officers, and surveillance by suspected police and military agents.

•Human rights and criminal lawyer since 1972.

Threats, Harassment, Surveillance, and Labeling

Pro-Labor Legal Assistance Center (PLACE)

•Experienced surveillance, harassment, and intimidation by state agents.

•Handles about 700 labor cases, providing free legal services to workers.

Harassment, Intimidation, and Surveillance

Atty. Harry Roque

•Has been receiving death threats via his mobile phone.

•Has been vocal against various government corruption scandals and handles the class suit filed by journalists against the husband of President Arroyo

Threats, Harassment, and Intimidation

Atty. Robert Tudayan

•Received death threats from suspected military agents.

•Labeled as a lawyer for the New Peoples’ Army by the military

Threats, Harassment, and Labeling

Atty. Remegio Saladero

•Arrested and detained for months and charged with a string of criminal charges, and labeled as member of the NPA by the military.

•One of the lawyers of a labor law office, a labor union and a party-list group

Threats, Harassment, Surveillance, Labeling, and False Charges

Atty. Neri Javier Colmenares

• Secretary General of NUPL and member of People First partylist in Congress

•Labeled and harassed by suspected military elements. Included in the Order of Battle of the military, and falsely implicated in the crime of multiple murder.

Harassment, and Labeling

Atty. Charles Juloya

•Was fired at with eight shots, but was hit by only two non-fatal shots.

•Served as counsel to striking workers and legal adviser of a local human rights group.

Assassination Attempts

Atty. Cyril Yap•His law office was staked out for successive days by four suspicious-looking men.

Harassment

Atty. Carlos Isagani Zarate

•His law office was cased by unidentified men who took pictures .

•Named in the military Order of Battle.

Assassination Attempts, Labeling

Incidents of Reported Killings or Attacks on Philippine Lawyers and Judges

January 2001-December 2009

Number of Lawyers Killed 2001 to present 24 (8 of which are human rights lawyers) Number of Judges Killed 15Number of Paralegals, Law Students Killed 03 Number of Lawyers Attacked 56Number of Human Rights Lawyers Attacked 48

Incidents of Reported Killings or Attacks on Philippine Lawyers and Judges

January 2001-December 2009

Lawyers and judges who survived attempted slay 05Lawyers and judges who received death threats 17

Victims of Labeling/Included in the Military’s Order of Battle (OB) 19

Lawyers and judges under surveillance 15

Why are we being attacked?Why are we being attacked?

Political, Economic and Social Context

Political, Economic and Social Context of the Attacks

Political, Economic and Social Context of the Attacks

The climate of impunity has victimized farmers, workers, indigenous peoples, migrants, activists, journalists, church people and other sectors.

According to the human rights group Karapatan, there are now

1118 victims of extrajudicial killings,

204 disappeared,

1,026 tortured and

1,932 illegally arrested since 2001 when Arroyo came to power.

Of these numbers,

460 are human rights defenders who have been

killed including 36 human rights workers.

68 of the disappeared and

543 of those illegally arrested are human rights defenders.

•The unresolved killings and continuing attacks on lawyers and judges are assaults on the legal profession, the rule of law and the system of justice.

•These attacks violate national and international law.

•A considerable number of victimized lawyers either are counsels of or belong to perceived enemies of the State.

•Authorities have not done enough; Government is allowing the killings to continue because they involve dissenters and critics

The Philippines has become one of the most dangerous places for lawyers and judges in the world since there are very few countries where lawyers and judges are brutally  murdered  and continuously attacked in various forms and where the real perpetrators have not been held accountable to this very day. 

The climate of impunity pervades.

There is a need to defend the defenders themselves.There is a need to defend the defenders themselves.

The Need for Continuing

International Concern and Solidarity

We will fight for our clients.

We will defend the victims.

We shall seek justice.

We shall continue the struggle with the people.