By Atty. Rachel F. Pastores, PILC
LAWYERS implicated in the matrix of the so-called ouster plot against the Duterte administration lashed back at the government for being the real destabilizer.
The ouster plot broadcast and affirmed by Malacañang was laughable and idiotic.
Our only mandate as people’s lawyers or public interest lawyers is to protect the rights and interests of the people. It is the government that is destabilizing itself through anti-people and repressive policies such as the vicious war on drugs which has resulted in extrajudicial killing of thousands of the poor, its accelerated tax reform program which has diluted family purchasing power. The government has only itself to blame for the growing discontent and outrage of the Filipino people.
The PILC, counsel for NUPL, filed a manifestation in the Supreme Court to include this latest attack against the latter in its petition for issuance of writ of amparo and to reiterate their application for temporary protection order (TPO). On April 15, 2019, the NUPL filed an amparo and habeas data petition seeking protection for its members from attacks and threats to life, liberty and security after being maliciously tagged by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) as a communist front.
It was precipitated by the continuing threats, harassment, vilification, and surveillance in connection with the human rights cases they are handling.
This latest act of maliciously linking us human rights lawyers to the wildly imagined ouster plot only bolsters our petition for a writ of amparo and habeas data. The petition is intended to put a stop to the intensifying attack against us, lawyers.