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38 lawyers killed since August 2016 —IBP


The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) said on Thursday that 38 lawyers have been killed since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office in 2016.

Rex Jasper Lopoz, the latest lawyer to fall, was gunned down Wednesday night in front of a shopping mall in Tagum City, Davao del Norte, a "treacherous" incident the IBP said it "strongly condemns."

"We are almost losing count," the IBP said in a statement. In August 2016, gunmen killed lawyer Rogelio Bato Jr., who represented the late Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa.

Espinosa was accused of being a drug personality. He was killed inside his jail cell in November 2016. His son, Kerwin, faces a string of criminal cases before courts in Metro Manila.

Just last January, lawyer Mary Ann Castro was killed in Cebu City.  AKO Bicol party-list representative Rodel Batocabe, a lawyer, and his bodyguard died in an ambush last December.

Benjamin Ramos, a founding member of the National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL), was killed in November. Ozamiz City Judge Edmundo Pintac was shot dead in October. Quezon City prosecutor Rogelio Velasco was killed last May.

The IBP urged authorities to solve the cases "with a real sense of duty and competent dispatch."

"This series of unsolved crimes against lawyers has germinated a dark halo of fear that has paralyzed the most important pillars of the justice system," the IBP said.

"Murder and other forms of mindless violence have no place in civilized society," it said, adding that lawyers must not be associated with the alleged crimes of their clients.

The organization has earlier urged the Supreme Court to ensure a speedy, fair, and independent investigation into the killings of lawyers since Duterte became president.

At a colloquium on the role of lawyers held in Ortigas, NUPL president Edre Olalia said at least 115 lawyers have been killed since the Marcos regime.

Philippine Judges Association president Felix Reyes said 29 judges have been killed in the line of duty in the last three decades.

"An attack on lawyers anywhere is an attack on lawyers everywhere," Olalia said.

A group of nine foreign lawyers have arrived in the country to meet with survivors or relatives of victims of attacks against lawyers, as well as government offices, law enforcement agencies, bar associations and law professors.

The delegation is expected to come up with a report that will be made public, Olalia told reporters.

The groups involved include the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, the Union of International Advocates, and the Day of Endangered Lawyers Foundation, with support from various lawyers associations from Belgium, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, and the United States. —LDF, GMA News

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