IBP slams attack vs. lawyer who survived ambush

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) has slammed the "treacherous attack" on one of its members, a lawyer who survived an ambush and killed one of his attackers in Quezon City.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the IBP also called on the police, the National Bureau of Investigation and other government enforcement agencies to probe the attack and other "unsolved incidents that seriously impinge upon the rule of law."

"The IBP condemns the recent treacherous attack on Atty. Argel Joseph Cabatbat as a grievous affront to the rule of law," it said.

"While Atty. Cabatbat has survived to relate the circumstances behind the ambush, he is one of the very few who have narrowly evaded the fatal intentions of a barrel of a gun," it added.

Cabatbat survived a shooting attack on Tuesday by three men aboard two motorcycles while he was driving his car.

He chased his attackers and ran them over, killing one, who was later identified as a police officer who had apparently been dismissed from the service.

The IBP is the official organization of all Philippine lawyers.

It explained in the statement that "many other" lawyers, judges and Court officers have recently been "targeted with pinpoint accuracy and swelling impunity, thereby creating an environment of fear that has manacled the pillars of the justice system."

It claimed lawyers must be able to defend their clients without the "corrupting elements of fear and intimidation" in order to ensure that cases are resolved in accordance with the law, evidence and a fair court.

The IBP has previously condemned other acts of violence against its members, even criticizing President Rodrigo Duterte for his supposed threat to lawyers who defend alleged drug suspects.

"Hired killers and their masterminds have no place in civilized society. Regardless of the overwhelming merit a cause of action may present, violence directed against the actors in the legal theater must never be countenanced," the statement said.

It was signed by IBP National President Abdiel Dan Elijah Fajardo. —Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas/KG, GMA News