De Lima reiterates call for Senate probe on attacks vs lawyers

Detained Senator Leila de Lima has reiterated her call for a Senate investigation into the continued spate of violent attacks against members of the legal profession and the justice sector officials.

In Senate Resolution No. 1031, filed March 27, De Lima said the spate of attacks and killings of members of the Bar has become an escalating and alarming trend.

She said it makes it imperative for the government and law authorities and institutions to conduct a thorough investigation and ensure that the perpetrators are swiftly brought to justice

She said the roll of lawyers is rapidly transforming into a long list of names of casualties caught in the middle of the administration’s bloody war on drugs.

“While initially hunting down drug users and drug lords, the killings would spread across sectors – with one pillar of defense after another being toppled down in brazen impunity,” she said.

Among the victims were Atty. Rex Jasper Lopoz, then representative of accused in drug cases, who was killed by unidentified gunmen last March 13; human rights lawyer Benjamin Ramos who was killed by riding-in-tandem assailants last November 6, 2018; and environmental lawyer Atty. Mia Manuelita Mascarinas-Green who was shot dead by four motorcycle-riding gunmen in the view and presence of her children last February 15, 2017.

De Lima said Lopoz was said to be the 38th lawyer who has been killed since Duterte assumed presidency in 2016, according to records from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and the Human Rights Watch (HRW).

She said it is important “to provide adequate measures to address and ensure the personal and professional safety of Filipino lawyers and to effectively prevent any further attacks on their independence and security.”

De Lima, a lawyer by profession, also said that the targeted and systematic attacks against the members of the legal profession was detrimental not only to the lawyers but also to defendants who run towards them for relief

In March 2018, De Lima filed Senate Bill No. 1721 seeking to protect the members of the legal profession and the justice sector officials by increasing penalty on crimes committed against them.

A month after, she filed Senate Resolution No. 668 seeking to look into the recent spate of killings and attacks against members of the legal profession especially those lawyers who are handling high-profile cases. The resolution was referred to the committees on public order and dangerous drugs, and justice and human rights. —LDF, GMA News