IBP calls for unity among law enforcement, justice sectors following bombings, killings

Published August 28, 2020 03:50 PM By NICOLE-ANNE C. LAGRIMAS,GMA News

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) has called for unity and cooperation among the law enforcement and justice sectors to bring to justice the criminals behind recent bombings and killings in the country.

"Delayed, selective, unequal, or twisted justice erodes the rule of law which should be a deterrent to the violence that diminishes all of us," IBP president Domingo Egon Cayosa said in a statement.

He made the remark following the twin explosions in Jolo, Sulu

earlier this week that killed at least 15 people and injured more than 70 others, and the killing of activists Randall Echanis and Zara Alvarez.

Cayosa said the IBP condemns "all forms of violence inflicted by anyone without due process and beyond legal norms," including suicide bombings, ambushes of military and police units, assassinations, and the tortures and killings of activists or suspects.

"The abuse, impunity, frustrations, desperation, aspirations, or hopelessness underlying the continuing violence in our country must be firmly and effectively addressed by government and society as a whole," he said.

"As we deal with the root causes of crime and violence, IBP calls for unity and cooperation among all those who work in the law enforcement and justice sectors to make the perpetrators accountable sooner than later," he added.

Joint Task Force Sulu has identified the suspects

in the Jolo bombings as two women, one of whom is believed to be the widow of a Filipino suicide bomber. The other suspect was allegedly the wife of Abu Sayyaf's liaison to ISIS who was killed during a firefight with troops.

The military also said four Indonesian women who might carry out suicide bomb attacks in the country remain free in Mindanao.

Before the bombings, two activists were killed within weeks of each other.

Echanis, a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, was found dead in Quezon City. His body bore multiple stab wounds other than the final, fatal stab wound, indicating that he was made to suffer before he was killed.

Alvarez, a paralegal of human rights group Karapatan, was shot dead in Bacolod City.

The Department of Justice's mechanism to investigate politically-motivated killings is looking into the Echanis case and was last reported to be considering the Alvarez case. —KBK, GMA News

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