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EDITORIAL – A dangerous place for legal professionals
The Philippine Star 05/25/2005
If it’s any consolation to journalists, they are not the only ones who are targeted for assassination in this country. An international group of lawyers said the other day that the Philippines has become “a dangerous place” for judges and lawyers. The International Association of People’s Lawyers reported that since last year, 11 judges, lawyers and even law students have been murdered in this country. A local group, the Coalition for the Defense of Lawyers, also reported 11 cases of attacks and harassment targeting members of the legal profession since the start of the year.
Most of the cases documented by the lawyers’ groups involve attacks on cause-oriented legal professionals. Suspicion inevitably focuses on the military or police, especially since most of the cases, like those involving journalists, remain unsolved. In recent years, however, judges and lawyers have also been targeted by drug dealers, corrupt politicians, gambling lords and rebel groups. Such security threats are among the reasons for the shortage of judges and prosecutors in the countryside, particularly in the conflict areas of Mindanao.
Like the executions of journalists, the killings of legal professionals will not be carried out with impunity if murderers are caught and sent to prison. Crime cases, however, are impossible to solve when there is no will to solve them. As in almost all the killings involving journalists, many of the murders of judges, lawyers and law students were carried out in areas controlled by warlords or political kingpins — people who have power over those in charge of the criminal justice system in their localities. Security threats can have a powerful influence on a judge. It is not surprising then that some judges simply go along with what those in power want, even if it means giving up the independence of the judiciary.
There are judges and other legal professionals, however, who refuse to compromise. They are the ones targeted by those who keep finding ways of subverting democratic processes. Their murders are another chilling reminder that in this country, the rule of law is a joke.
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We should implement a gun ban immediately in the country.
Posted by adrian at May 25, 2005, 11:11 pmstrengthen the judicial system, and hold all local officials and the police and military for any deaths of journalists, lawyers and other persons who uphold the truth and the law within their territories.
Perhaps this approach will stop and minimize the killing. This is like the call of Congressman Chiz Escudero to hold such officials responsible for the continued jueteng in their territories.
What happened we have a lot of unemployed collectors, kobradors in many localities