Detained Aeta tribesmen replace counsel with government lawyers

The Supreme Court has set aside the petition for intervention of two detained Aeta tribesmen who were the first to be charged under the controversial antiterror law even as the duo confirmed that they would change their lawyers in the cases they face before the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court.Brian Keith Hosaka, the Supreme Court spokesperson, said the petition was set aside since they had already been indicted in Olangapo City.

The two men—Japer Gurung and Junior Ramos—also appeared in an online press briefing organized by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict to announce that they would drop their lawyers from the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL).

“We want (the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples or NCIP and the Public Attorney’s Office or PAO) because we saw that they really want to help,” Gurung said.

But the NUPL Central Luzon said in a statement that Ramos and Gurung admitted that they signed the papers appointing NCIP and PAO lawyers because they were confused. —WITH A REPORT FROM KRIXIA SUBINGSUBING