A lawyers’ group on Monday slammed President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to the military to “destroy” the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its legal fronts, saying this would worsen the culture of violence already prevailing in the country.
In a statement, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) questioned the legality of the President’s directive to “kill them all,” referring to the insurgents and their perceived allied organizations.
“By what law or legal authority then is the Duterte government authorized to issue that order? The last time we know, we have a Bill of Rights enshrined in the Constitution to provide limits to the vast powers of the government,” said lawyer Edre Olalia, NUPL president.
“There is evident danger in that all legal organizations … maliciously suspected of being legal fronts of the CPP become targets of the lethal actions of the armed forces,” Olalia added. —Melvin Gascon