Supreme Court of the Philippines

De Lima to Supreme Court: So many lawyers had to die before you spoke

Lian Buan

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De Lima to Supreme Court: So many lawyers had to die before you spoke

DETAINED. Senator Leila de Lima is escorted by jail guards during a furlough for a medical checkup on February 11, 2021.

Photo from De Lima's office

Senator Leila de Lima says President Rodrigo Duterte is 'a monster that the SC helped create'

Detained opposition senator Leila de Lima was not so pleased with the rare public statement of the Supreme Court (SC) on lawyers’ killings, saying it came too late.

“It is unfortunate that so many lawyers had to die before the Supreme Court acted,” De Lima said in a dispatched message from Camp Crame on Wednesday, March 24.

The SC, acting en banc or as a whole, issued a rare statement on Tuesday, March 23, condemning killings of lawyers and laying out an action plan to collate reports for 5 weeks, and assess what institutional changes can be made to protect the legal profession.

Based on the last consolidated data, there have been 61 lawyers, judges, and prosecutors killed in the last 5 years of the Duterte administration. This is a disproportionate number because the same data would show 49 lawyers, judges, and prosecutors were killed in a span of 44 years under the presidencies of Ferdinand Marcos to Benigno Aquino III.

There were successive killings in November 2020, and by January 2021 when the SC and the Department of Justice started dialogues, another lawyer died in Bukidnon.

The stabbing in the head of anti-terror law petition counsel Angelo Karlo “AK” Guillen in March set in motion actions, including a public event of lawyers despite a gag order, to demand that the SC intervene.

The statement, nearly a month later, was the Court’s answer.

“The question is, will Duterte listen or will he continue to instruct our police to ignore human rights?” De Lima asked, referring to speeches of the President, which include one in 2016 where he threatened drug suspects and their lawyers.

The SC’s rare public statement did not specifically address the surge of lawyers’ killings under Duterte. Its data gathering, in fact, will cover the last 10 years. The statement also did not address the accusation that some state agents are behind the killings and threats.

A study by the Free Legal Assistance Group showed at least 4 of the 61 cases had police as perpetrators. The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers has a pending appeal to the SC for the writ of amparo – a protective remedy – from harassment they claim is from the military.

“We are aware that there are wayward elements who, in their zeal to do what they think is necessary, would simply brush aside the limitations in our law as mere obstacles,” said the SC’s statement, not specifying who the elements are.

“This should never be countenanced, for it is only in the enjoyment of our inalienable and indivisible rights that our freedoms become meaningful,” added the Court.

‘A monster the SC helped create’

De Lima said “Duterte is a monster that the SC helped create.”

Activists, and even an ally of the administration, have lost their court petitions for protective writs under Duterte, highlighting the need to strengthen them especially in the context of escalating killings.

Duterte has also overwhelmingly won in the SC. The high-stakes drug war petitions have been pending for 4 years.

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“In the first place, it is the Supreme Court itself who said that he is immune from suit, and that anyone he attacks is without recourse in law,” said De Lima, referring to a petition for habeas data she filed against Duterte which the SC denied.

A petition for the writ of habeas data asks the Court to compel the respondent to remove damaging information about the petitioner. De Lima filed it in 2016 after Duterte publicly accused her of links to the drug trade, and of sexual immorality.

The SC unanimously denied it in 2019, saying Duterte is immune from suit. In November 2020, the Court denied it with finality, but associate justices Marvic Leonen and Benjamin Caguioa turned dissenters.

In his dissenting opinion, Leonen said presidential immunity has never been absolute and to dismiss the petition just based on that without means of redress “is a dangerous precedent that must be overturned.”

The SC’s action plan includes converting letters from lawyers into petitions for amparo and habeas data, which former SC spokesperson Ted Te said was an indication that the Court intends to strengthen these writs.

This intent, however, comes only after a decade of repeated pleas to the SC to review the inefficiencies of the writs. – Rappler.com

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Lian Buan

Lian Buan is a senior investigative reporter, and minder of Rappler's justice, human rights and crime cluster.