Law groups to UN Special Rapporteur: Executive branch ‘attacking’ Judiciary

Several law groups has submitted a report to the UN Special Rapporteur narrating recent actions by the Philippine government which they believe will have a negative impact on the independence of judges and lawyers in the country.

In their report, the groups enumerated attacks by the Executive branch, particularly by President Rodrigo Duterte against members of the Judiciary including Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Atty. Arpee Santiago from the Ateneo Human Rights Center said the executive department appeared to have been exercising its influence against Sereno.

“Impeachment is a political process but the systematic attack shows how the executive department intends to influence the actions against the Chief Justice,” Santiago at a press conference said Wednesday.

“Judicial independence is fundamental to the protection of human rights,” Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) national President Abdiel Dan Elijah Fajardo added.

They cited in their report the Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) speech of President Duterte where he called Sereno his enemy.

In his speech, Duterte told Sereno “Uupakan kita (referring to Sereno). I will help any investigators. Talagang uupakan kita…I’m putting you on notice that I am now your enemy and you have to be out of the Supreme Court.” (I will hit you. I will help any investigators. I will definitely hit you.)

The report also mentioned that Duterte called on the legislative branch, a separate branch from the Executive which Duterte is the head, to fast track the impeachment case against Sereno. Within moments, according to the report, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez responded by promising that it will be done when the session resumes.

The report submitted to the UN also took note of President Duterte having called the Chief Justice  “ignorante” (ignorant), “bobo” (dumb) and “torpe” (coward).

“The recent tirades of the President against the Chief Justice do not sound at all foreboding. They rather expectedly punctuate the long-winded attacks on judicial independence that began almost two years ago, when the Chief Justice dared resist an apparent intrusion into judicial power,” stated in the report submitted to the UN.

Aside from Sereno, the lawyers groups also mentioned the Chief Executive’s other tirades against lawyers:

• The President  berated Fajardo at an IBP (Integrated Bar of the Philippines) event after its national president said the Ombudsman, who was planning to investigate the President’s  alleged hidden wealth was threatened to also be subjected to an investigation by an anti-corruption group created by the President.

• Atty. Benjamin Ramos who worked with peasant groups and human rights groups was tagged as a communist rebel and his photo appeared in a police poster.

• President Duterte warned lawyers that if they represent people involved in drugs that they will also be included in the government’s war on drugs.

The group also noted that the practice of law has become dangerous in the Philippines with several lawyers, prosecutors and judges being murdered, the last being  the death of Atty. Jonah John Ungab, lawyer for self-confessed drug distributor Kerwin Espinosa.

Other attacks on lawyers and judges mentioned in the report include:

• Retired Judge Victor Canoy and Surigao City Prosecutor Manuel Tesiorna (survived) attacked four days apart. Both have received warnings that they were in a list of supposed protectors of illegal drug traders;
• Judge Godofredo Abul Jr., who was handling a drug case in his sala;
• Atty. Hermie Aban who was handling drug cases;
• Edwin Pura, a paralegal for a human rights lawyer Ron Ely Espinosa. Espinosa survived an earlier attack against his life.

All the incidents happened last year.

“The manifest hostility shown by the State against prominent lawyers who have voiced their disagreement with the present administration, who are merely exercising their right to do so, will effectively mum other lawyers. Clearly, the State has failed to adhere to Principle 16 and Principle 17 Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers,” the report stated.

The lawyers who submitted the report  told the UN Special Rapporteur that “under international law, a violation of human rights may lead to international responsibility because of lack of due diligence to prevent the violation or to respond to it.”

Aside from the IBP, the mandatory organization of lawyers with over 50,000 members, the Ateneo Human Rights Center, other groups who joined in submitting their report to the UN Special Rapporteur are the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), Alternative Law Groups, Free Legal Assistance Groups, Manananggol Laban sa EJKs (MANLABAN) and the International Pro Bono Alliance. /muf

 

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