NUPL slams link to alleged Duterte ouster plot

The National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL) on Monday condemned its "libelous" inclusion in an alleged plot to "discredit" and "blacken the image" of President Rodrigo Duterte.

The members of the lawyers' group were the only non-media personalities included in an "association matrix" showing what purportedly looks like a "coordinated media campaign" against the President that was published by The Manila Times on Monday.

Tagged as leftist, an identification the NUPL has repeatedly decried, the lawyers' group allegedly "distribute[s] false narratives" that come from a certain "Bikoy," an anonymous figure who has accused the Duterte family of having links to the drug trade, according to the Times' story.

"This has certainly gone over the walls of credulity. It is absolutely false, totally baseless and completely ludicrous," the NUPL National Executive Board said in a statement.

The group said the accusation — which according to the article comes from a single, anonymous source purportedly from the Office of the President — places the safety and security of their members in danger.

Malacañang on Monday backed the Times report. In a press briefing, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo showed media the same matrix, but added that his copy came from Duterte himself. He denied that the Times' copy came from the Palace.

"We are lawyers and are simply just too busy defending and promoting human rights especially of the basic sectors. We have our hands full advocating public interest issues," the NUPL said. "We do not have time for such hogwash accusations which will not even pass muster Ripley's Believe It or Not."

The NUPL said it is being "vilified" for, among others, its sustained criticism of supposed extrajudicial killings in the Duterte administration's war on drugs, its filing of several public interest cases before the Supreme Court, and its representation of political prisoners, dissenters and protesters.

NUPL lawyers were also the private prosecutors in the kidnapping case against retired Army general Jovito Palparan over the disappearance of university students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan in 2006. Palparan has been convicted by a Bulacan court.

The group said it is unfazed by the allegation and will continue to perform its function in accordance with its mandate, priorities and capacity.

"Criticism is not ousting. Lawyering is not destabilizing. At bottom, this allegation is not worth the paper it is written on. It is putrid rubbish. Garbage in — and so must — garbage out," it said. —KG, GMA News