ILOILO City – Inflicting violence on those who seek justice is criminality in the highest degree, declared the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), the official organization of all Philippine lawyers whose names appear in the Roll of Attorneys of the Supreme Court.
Reactions on the attack on Atty. Angelo Karlo Guillen of this city were swift and unanimous. IBP described it as brazen and treacherous.
“As IBP stands ready to help and cooperate with Atty. Guillen’s family, investigators, and law enforcers to identify, pursue, arrest, and resolutely prosecute the suspects, we highlight the primary role of government to secure its citizens and its international obligation to ensure that lawyers can do their job without fear, harassment, or retribution,” a statement from the group read.
IBP’s Iloilo chapter, on the other hand, stressed that lawyers “only perform the duties they are sworn to do and seek to uphold the rule of law regardless of who they represent.”
“We are not cowered by the series of attacks against members of the Bench and the bar, but we denounce the formative culture of subjecting lawyers to attack for enforcing the rights of the people,” it added.
The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), on the other hand, called on the authorities to “promptly and properly investigate” the attempt on the life of Guillen.
Since June 2016, NUPL has recorded at least 54 killings of lawyers and judges “that are prima facie related their work.”
The city government expressed concern, too.
“I am very much alarmed,” said Mayor Jerry Treñas, himself a lawyer.
Lawyers, he said, “only do their function to protect their clients. As a lawyer myself, this is doubly important for me to be resolved. I call on our Philippine National Police to do everything to resolve this at the earliest possible time.”
Cong. Julienne Baronda of Iloilo City also condemned the incident, describing Guillen as a “staunch defender” of human rights.
“I call on the Iloilo City Police Office to bring the perpetrators to justice at once. Peace and order must rule in Iloilo City,” she said
Iloilo province’s Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. agreed.
“We must condemn those acts in the strongest possible terms…No reason can justify that. Justice should be served,” said Defensor, also a lawyer.
PALACE REACTS, TOO
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the Duterte administration condemned the attack on Guillen, too, “in the same manner that we condemn any attack that seeks to violate the right to life.”
He urged the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct a probe.
“We consider na itong pag-atake po sa abogado ay mas karumal-dumal dahil inaatake din nila ‘yung ating tinatawag na rule of law,” said Roque.
Justice secretary Menardo Guevarra, meanwhile, said they were gearing up for investigation.
“If he has good reason to believe that it’s related to his advocacies, I will refer the matter to the AO (Administrative Order) 35 taskforce for appropriate action,” Guevarra said. “We’ll wait for Atty. Guillen to make a statement about the incident.”
DOJ’s AO 35 taskforce investigates extralegal killings, enforced disappearances, torture and other grave violations to the rights to life, liberty and security of persons./PN
