NUPL runs to SC over inclusion in 'oust-Duterte' plot

The National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL) has sought the intervention of the Supreme Court after a newspaper report tagged its leaders and members to a supposed plot to oust President Rodrigo Duterte.

In an eight-page manifestation filed on Wednesday, the NUPL called the "Association Matrix Between Bikoy and Ellen Tordesillas" — the diagram showing those involved in the alleged plot — as a "ludicrous report" that was later followed by "a more vicious and malicious article" published in the Manila Times.

"These malicious statements and dangerous claims, as well as the contrived 'matrix' above, baseless and reckless as they are, compel the petitioners to again seek at this time for the Honorable Court's protection and reiterate their prayer for a temporary protection order," the NUPL said.

The matrix was first published on Monday, citing a source from the Office of the President. It tagged the NUPL, Rappler, VERA Files, and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism as groups out to "discredit" Duterte and "destabilize" his administration.

However, the NUPL told the SC that the names included in the matrix seemed to be lifted from its own brochure.

The manifestation supplements the writ of amparo it filed before the SC on April 15, when it also sought temporary protection from Duterte and his security forces from threatening and harming its members. 

The NUPL also sought a writ of habeas data ordering the officials to disclose and destroy information they have on the lawyers.

The group had said in its petition that their member-attorneys have been targeted by accusations of links to communist rebels, surveillance, false charges, and violent attacks, acts of harassment that they said are "intensifying" under the Duterte administration.

The manifestation said the administration no longer resorts to the red-tagging of NUPL members, "but also cite the NUPL and its entire leadership together with other media groups in a report, as allegedly involved in a supposed plot to oust President Duterte."

"Very few lawyers have taken up the cause of the marginalized and underprivileged. And those who have chosen to do so have become targets themselves. The continued vilification, harassment and threats to the life, security and liberty of the petitioners must stop now," it added.

Both the NUPL and the media organizations mentioned in the article denied conspiring to oust Duterte, although Malacañang has backed the Manila Times report. —KBK, GMA News