THE Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) expressed alarm over the high number of lawyers, judges and prosecutors killed under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, who is also a lawyer and a former fiscal himself.
In a statement, the group said an average of 10 lawyers, judges and prosecutors were killed per administration.
Under the Duterte administration, 63 have been killed.
The latest killings targeted Deputy City Prosecutor Victor Begtang Jr. inside his home in Conner, Apayao on June 23, 2021 and Sitti Gilda Mahinay-Sapie in Davao City on July 14, 2021.
“The IBP grieves and is appalled by the increasing and sheer number of assassinations of lawyers, judges and prosecutors with impunity. In stark contrast, the number of lawyers killed during the previous administrations stretching back to 1972 was no less than 10 for each administration with one administration having no lawyer death ever recorded,” the IBP said in the statement.
The group called on the Philippine National Police and investigative agencies to implement specific measures to improve the security of lawyers, judges and prosecutors and arrest those behind the attacks.
Meanwhile, progressive groups holding protest actions ahead of Duterte's final State of the Nation Address (Sona) said Duterte should be held accountable for crimes against the Filipino people.
“In the past five years under Duterte, there is clearly no justice and peace, only State terror and criminal negligence of people’s welfare. None of his so-called achievements, which he will predictably tout today in his Sona, can overshadow the thousands killed in his murderous policies and programs, and how these atrocities continue with impunity,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.
“This is Duterte’s only legacy: a full-blown human rights crisis and democratic backsliding in the Philippines,” she added.
Palabay said as of June 2021, they have recorded 414 victims of extrajudicial killings in line with the government’s counterinsurgency campaigns and operations of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
They also recorded 497 victims of frustrated extrajudicial killings, 1,126 victims of illegal arrests and detention, and 223 victims of torture.
She said these are on top of the over 6,000 alleged drug suspects killed in the administration’s drug war. (Third Anne Peralta-Malonzo / SunStar Philippines)