(Eagle News) — Senator Leila de Lima has urged a probe into what she said were the recent spate of killings against members of the legal profession.
“Since the beginning of this administration, in spite of constant calls for action to protect members of legal profession, the numbers of lawyers killed have increased and without any significant executive or legislative action taken,” De Lima said in filing Senate Resolution No. (SRN) 668.
De Lima cited as examples Atty. Jonah John Ungab, who was killed on Feb. 19 after attending hearings at the Cebu City Hall of Justice, and the killing of Rogelio Bato in an ambush in Albuera, Leyte in August 2016.
Ungab was the counsel of self-confessed drug distributor Kerwin Espinosa, while Bato was the lawyer of Espinosa’s father, Mayor Rolando Espinosa, who also faced drug-related charges until he was killed while detained in a Leyte jail.
De Lima said Atty. Melver Tolentino, the lawyer of a drug suspect, was shot several times while he was refuelling at a gasoline station in Ilocos Sur last Sept. 2016 while Atty. Hermie Aban, the handling lawyer for the case of former Governor Joel Reyes, was shot by a gunman aboard a motorcycle in Palawan last August 2016.
According to a report from Alternative Law Journal, De Lima said, 114 legal professionals were killed between January 1, 1999 and October 2014 – four of whom were judges, eight prosecutors, and the rest lawyers.
“Various human rights groups and lawyer organizations have expressed alarm over the recent incidents saying that these attacks are attacks against the legal profession and the judicial system,” De Lima said.
According to De Lima, “lawyers are advocates of the litigants and they act to facilitate the administration of justice.”
“To threaten or endanger the lawyers is to subvert the effective functioning of our justice system.. Professionals are guardians of justice, and such vile incidences pose a serious threat to democracy and the rule of law,” she added.
