Lawyers decry pro-Marcos mob’s assault, MPD’s inaction

A group of lawyers representing victims of human rights violations during the Marcos dictatorship has accused the Manila Police District (MPD) of doing nothing when one of the lawyers was assaulted by a Marcos loyalist during a rally outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Edre Olalia, secretary general of the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), said the policemen who were deployed in the area refused to arrest the Marcos loyalist who hit NUPL executive director and law student Rea Penol on the nape and challenged her to a fight.

The incident happened outside the SC compound where pro- and anti-Marcos groups gathered as the magistrates heard oral arguments on the contentious plan to give the dictator a hero’s burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City.

Olalia said the assault took place as his legal team, whose clients filed the first petition seeking to stop the burial, stepped out of the Supreme Court gates after the proceedings.

“The NUPL legal team, pro bono counsel for the human rights victims, was heckled and harassed by unruly Marcos loyalists outside the gates,” he said. “The mob taunted and called them liars, dwarves and (communist rebels), provoking them into a fight.”

One of the rowdy Marcos loyalists then hit Penol, he recalled.

When the other lawyers learned about it and complained to the Manila police, the officers “just stood still and refused to accost, much less arrest, the identified man who was later whisked away by the Marcos loyalists,” Olalia said.

As the NUPL kept raising the issue, some of the pro-Marcos leaders “were compelled to apologize but refused to yield the assailant who then fled.”

“(This is) the best argument we have seen so far why Marcos should not be worthy of emulation or inspiration for generations,” Olalia said.

Reached for comment, Supt. Marissa Bruno, MPD spokesperson, said she had not received any report about the incident but that the station concerned would look into it.

She said the Supreme Court area was under the jurisdiction of Station 5.

“Help us get the information. If we find any lapse, we will act on it,” Bruno said, adding that policemen deployed for rallies are supposed to “mediate” if clashes erupt between opposing groups.