IBP urges aspiring lawyers to join its call for gov’t to address violence against lawyers

As the bar examinations closed on Sunday, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) urged aspiring lawyers to join its call for the government to address the “growing impunity” perpetrated against lawyers.

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“Even as we celebrate overcoming the last hurdle towards becoming a member of the legal profession, we must reiterate our collective call for the government to arrest this growing impunity in the violence, intimidation, and harassment being perpetrated against lawyers,” IBP President Abdiel Fajardo said in a statement on Sunday.

“This is a matter of duty for the government, and a matter of right for lawyers under international law,” he added.

Fajardo noted the recent killings of at least 35 lawyers, prosecutors, and judges.

From the ambush of lawyer Rogelio Bato Jr. in Tacloban City in August 2016 to the most recent killing of lawyer Benjamin Ramos, Fajardo said these assassinations made the legal profession “one of the most dangerous professions to practice” in the country.

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Fajardo, nevertheless, extended the organization’s “warm congratulations” to those “who have made it this far.”

He reminded the aspiring lawyers on the advice of former Associate Justice Jose Benedicto Luna Reyes.

“Now, the existential question must be asked. Do we see our admission to the bar as the gateway to riches and glory, or do we see it as an opportunity to serve,” Fajardo said.

“Always mindful of Justice JBL Reyes’ reminder that as lawyers we “have no master but the law, no guide but conscience, no aim but justice?” he added. /ee