HUMAN rights activist and lawyer Beverly Musni said a malicious streamer tagging her and several other persons as members of the New People’s Army (NPA) regional unit committee has been placed outside her house in Apovel subdivision.
Musni called the incident an attack on their security and violated the sanctity of their home. Musni, whose daughters are also lawyers, said this could be a prelude to physical attack against them.
The Musni family is known for representing incarcerated leaders of progressive organizations in court.
“This has never happened before that my property has been attacked. (We are already) Vilified nami before, apil nami sa (we were included in the) order of battle dating back 2009, never gyud nga naa mismo (it happened) in my home,” she said.
“If this can be done to house where three lawyers live, what more those nga naa sa (in the) countryside, urban areas, ingana kasayon maviolate ang (that’s how easy to violate the) sanctity of the abode (nowadays),” she added.
Musni recounted that on Wednesday night, their house helper noticed a man pointing a flashlight to their home. It was only the day after when they noticed the streamer placed in front of their house.
Musni believe that their being human rights lawyers is what made them victims of red-tagging.
Philippines : l'avocate Beverly Musni qui défend des opposants dénonce, à titre de mesure d'intimidation, l'apposition d'une banderole sur sa maison dénonçant ses liens avec les communistes https://t.co/3O1SaMRVP8
The provincial prosecutor of Oriental Mindoro was wounded in a gun attack yesterday.
Josephine Olivar was about to enter her home in Barangay Bayanan I, Calapan City when a lone gunman arrived at around 9:30 a.m. and shot her several times.
Olivar suffered two gunshot wounds in the head and three in other parts of the body.
“The victim was rushed to a hospital while the suspect fled,” Lt. Col. Socrates Faltado, spokesman for the Mimaropa police, said.
A statement from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Oriental Mindoro chapter said Olivar is now in stable condition.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct a probe and run after the perpetrators.
On the Frustrated Murder of
Mindoro Prosecutor Olivar:
YET ANOTHER ONE
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) joins the calls for a thorough investigation on the brazen shooting of a provincial prosecutor in Oriental Mindoro yesterday.
Reports disclose that Prosecutor Josephine Carranzo Olivar was shot several times in front of her very home in Calapan. She sustained wounds in the head and body but fortunately is now in stable condition.
We are immensely concerned about this seemingly unending and lamentably unresolved attacks on members of our profession.
Olivar is the seventh prosecutor attacked under the Duterte administration. A total of at least 39 lawyers, judges and prosecutors have been killed apparently in relation to their work since 2016, three of which just happened in the last month.
This is on top of many others who have been attacked in other forms like labelling, threats, harassment, intimidation, surveillance, false charges, and even arrests.
Even the policemen who have been identified to have been involved in the heinous murder of Quezon City Prosecutor Rogelio Velasco are now off the hook.
We condemn this attack on Olivar and we call out once again the Philippine government to abide by its responsibility under the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers which clearly mandates that:
16. Governments shall ensure that lawyers (a) are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference xxx;
17. Where the security of lawyers is threatened as a result of discharging their functions, they shall be adequately safeguarded by the authorities; and
18. Lawyers shall not be identified with their clients or their clients’ causes as a result of discharging their functions.
This latest attack comes on the heels of the unrelenting vicious attacks on NUPL as a whole. It also highlights the imperative for an independent investigation on the other “staggering” killings as urged by several UN officials including the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers.
With a surfeit of lawyers in all branches, levels and interstices of government, it must be a no-brainer that these attacks must be addressed, resolved and prevented with utmost dispatch and urgency. We must go beyond bombastic rhetoric, formulaic task forces and trite palliatives lest we learn of another one of our own biting the dust. #
Reference:
Edre U. Olalia
NUPL President
+63 9175113373
Ephraim B. Cortez
NUPL Secretary General
+63 917546 5798
Josalee S. Deinla
NUPL Spokesperson
+63 917431 6396
(In this photo, presidential spokesperon Salvador Panelo holds up supposed proof of journalists and pro bono lawyers conspiring against President Rodrigo Duterte.)
The National Union of People’s Lawyers, whose members were included in a diagram of journalists and lawyers allegedly involved in a plot to oust the president, will file charges over the allegation.
Speaking at a forum at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, NUPL secretary general Ephraim Cortez said the group will not file libel cases because these curtail the freedom of expression, but that charges “will definitely” be filed against government officials involved. He said complaints will also be filed over a newspaper report “exposing” the supposed plot.
Cortez raised that the Philippine National Police had announced an investigation into the supposed plot even before checking whether the “matrix” had basis.
“If evidence so warrants there can always be cases filed against them,” Police Gen. Oscar Albayalde, PNP chief, said on April 23 as he announced the national police would conduct the investigation on its own initiative.
NUPL had previously raised the “matrix” issue before the Supreme Court, saying it bolstered its petition for a protection order against alleged government harassment.
“These malicious statements and dangerous claims, as well as the contrived ‘matrix’ above, baseless and reckless as they are, compel the Petitioners to again seek at this time for the Honorable Court’s protection and reiterate their prayer for a temporary protection order,” it said in its manifestation on April 25.
Reminder: In Defence of Justice: End Impunity in the Philippines
Thursday May 8, 2019 6-8PM 515 West Hastings Street, SFU Harbour Centre, Room 1500
Edre Olalia, human rights lawyer and President of the Manila-based National Union of People’s Lawyers https://t.co/0tqexs4hdt
— Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada (@LRWCanada) May 7, 2019
Office of the Solicitor General asks SC to dismiss petition for writ of amparo, habeas data filed by the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers vs President Duterte, other govt officials in their Return of the Writ filed Wednesday. | via @mikenavallopic.twitter.com/fpgMaQ8ivZ
Inihayag ng ilang mga mamamahayag ang kanilang pagdududa sa inilabas na ouster plot matrix laban kay Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte, Mayo 7.
Sa nasabing forum, itinanggi ng Vera Files, Rappler, at National Union of Peoples' Lawyers ang pagkakaugnay sa kanila sa nasabing ouster plot. pic.twitter.com/Y48KQ9OAOL
The Supreme Court, in a special En Banc session held on Friday, issued a writ of amparo and habeas data in favor of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL).
The Court also referred the petition of NUPL, et al. to the Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeals, who was directed to cause the immediate raffle of the said case among the appellate justices. The CA was further directed to hear the petition on May 14, 2019 and to decide the case within 10 days after submission of the case for decision.
The Court also ordered respondents President Rodrigo Duterte, who was impleaded in his capacity as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, National Security Adviser (Ret.) Gen. Hermogenes C. Esperon, Jr., et al. to make a verified return of the writ of amparo and habeas data on or before May 8, 2019, and to comment on NUPL, et al.’s petition before the said date.
In its petition, NUPL, et al. sought for the issuance of the writ of amparo and habeas data for their protection, claiming that their rights to life, liberty and security have been violated and continue to be violated through the persistent threats and harassment and red tagging allegedly done to vilify and intimidate them and prevent them from pursuing their profession as members of the Bar and from practicing their advocacy as peoples’ lawyers serving the poor and the marginalized. They claimed that some NUPL members have died in the line of duty.
The petitioners are likewise asking the Court to compel the respondents, under the writ of habeas data, to provide them with copies of all the facts, information, statements, records, photographs, and other evidence, documentary or otherwise, pertaining to each of them in the respondents’ files and records.
In particular, NUPL alleged that it was branded as an “enemy” by the Philippine Army in 2013. In 2014, NUPL-Vice President Atty. Catherine Salucon allegedly experienced heavy surveillance and harassment and that her paralegal, William Bugatti, was killed hours after they had parted ways after a court hearing. In 2018, NUPL-Negros Secretary General Atty. Benjamin Ramos was killed in Kabankalan, Negros Occidental. They cited other several incidents of threats, harassment and intimidation due to their work and advocacy.
Also named as respondents were National Defense Secretary (Ret.) Gen. Delfin N. Lorenzana, AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Benjamin R. Madrigal, Jr., AFP Deputy Commander for Intelligence Brig. Gen. Fernando T. Trinidad, AFP Intelligence Service of the Philippines (ISAFP) Chief Maj. Gen. Erwin Bernard Neri, Philippine Army Commanding General Lt. Gen. Macairog S. Alberto, and AFP Deputy Chief of Staff for Civil Military Operations Maj. Gen. Antonio G. Parlade, Jr.
(G.R. 246175, NUPL, et al. v. President Duterte, et al., May 3, 2019)
SC Public Information Office
Ground Floor, New Supreme Court Building
Supreme Court of the Philippines
Padre Faura Street, Ermita, Manila 1000
Tel. No. (+632) 522 5090; (+632) 522 5094
x————-x
Press Statement
3 May 2019
5pm
Re info that Philippine Supreme Court granted in favor of NUPL a writ of Amparo & Habeas Data against the vicious redtagging by the military and baseless government accusation of involvement in an “ouster matrix”:
We are certainly pleased and somewhat relieved that the High Court has favorably acted upon our petition for protection of the life, liberty and security of NUPL members who are after all, officers of the court.
It came at a propitious time when the 2018 Bar results came out today welcoming our new colleagues in the profession. It gives our new lawyers a veritable food for thought while they rightfully celebrate.
It also sends a strong and clear signal to the military and government officials alike, as well as their proxies or agents, that there are certain well-defined rules of evidence not incompatible with basic fairness, decency, common sense and logic that must be observed.
While this is just a start of an intense judicial battle and tedious procedure, we are grateful that the Court heeded our supplication to be given judicial shield and a potential relief from reckless accusations, malicious labelling and vicious attacks in different forms and guises.
Its subtext is as unequivocal – incessant redtagging, personal mudslinging and contrived narratives will be subjected to judicial restraint and accountability.#
“The Honorable Court cannot sit idly by and allow state forces and their agents dictate how law ought to be practiced and eliminate lawyers who chose to represent the marginalized from the face of this land,” the petition read.
Amid recent violence, harassment, threats and red baiting against its members, the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) filed a petition for writs of amparo and habeas data with the Supreme Court this afternoon.
Named respondents were President Rodrigo Duterte as commander in chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Benjamin Madrigal Jr., Deputy Commander for Intelligence of the AFP Brig. Gen. Fernando T. Trinidad, Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) Chief Maj. Gen. Erwin Neri, Philippine Army Commanding General Lt. Gen. Macairog Sabiniano Alberto and AFP Deputy Chief of Staff for Civil Military Operations Maj. Gen. Antonio Parlade, Jr.
The NUPL seeks the protection of its members “whose rights to life, liberty and security have been violated and continue to be violated through persistent threats and harassment, and red tagging clearly intended to vilify and intimidate them and prevent them from pursuing their profession as members of the bar and from practicing their advocacy as peoples’ lawyers serving the poor and the marginalized.”
The group said that some of their members have been in the line of duty.
The NUPL has also asked the high court to compel the respondents, under the Writ of Habeas Data, to produce and, if necessary, to update and rectify, or to suppress and destroy, data, information, and files in their possession, under their control, or contained in their data base which relate to or concern them.
Members and officers of the NUPL troop to the Supreme Court to ask for protection from relentless military red-tagging led by Brig. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr.
The red scare tactics have intensified in recent months, with NUPL members being subjected to surveillance and various forms of threat, harassment and intimidation. The most vicious attack was the murder of Atty. Ben Ramos in Negros last year. In his last days alive, Atty. Ben was red-baited in anti-communist posters which showed his photo together with those of activists in the region.
NUPL lawyers were joined this afternoon by their clients from the marginalized sectors. They called on the government to let their lawyers do their jobs and urged the Supreme Court to issue the protective writs of amparo and habeas data in their favor.#
Members of the legal profession could be in more danger due to an Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) official’s claim that the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) had alleged links with communist rebels.
“Such reckless claims, on top of the public labeling and vilification of our members, has put the judges, prosecutors, public defenders, law professors, gov’t lawyers, law students and paralegals who belong to our voluntary pro bono organization in even more danger,” NUPL President Edre Olalia said in a statement on Friday.
Olalia’s statement was issued after AFP deputy chief of staff for civil-military operations Brig. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. accused the NUPL and other local organizations of having links with Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA).
The NUPL President said Parlade “crossed the line way too far” and that the allegation was “baseless” and “does not legally hold water at all.”
Olalia even warned the AFP official that members of the NUPL will face him in court to question the credibility behind the allegation.
“Absent any credible, competent and admissible evidence to even remotely give a semblance of veracity to this unabashedly fascist claim, we shall hale you to court. And you better match our best lawyers money cannot buy with your best lawyers money can buy,” Olalia’s statement read.
NUPL records show that from September 2016 to November 2018, a total of 24 lawyers have been killed, 15 of which are still unresolved.
A delegation of foreign lawyers has asked President Rodrigo Duterte to protect, and refrain from “publicly attacking,” lawyers, after it found a “sharp increase” in human rights violations against legal professionals during the current administration.
The President should instead publicly condemn attacks, the nine-member delegation said after conducting a brief study of 13 violent incidents against lawyers in the last two years.
The mission learned there was “no structural protection, compensation or remedy for the victims and their families,” as well as a “lack of effective oversight of executive bodies and law enforcement agencies, supporting a culture of impunity.”
As part of their study, the delegation, whose members come from Belgium, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, and the United States, also interviewed officers from the Department of Justice and the National Bureau of Investigation, which they said recognized the problem but seemed “frustrated” about local investigations.
At least 37 lawyers have been killed in the line of duty since the Duterte administration began, according to the count of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, one of the local groups that hosted the international mission.
Int’l Lawyers Looking Into Attacks on Ph Lawyers Harassed
It was so for real. And it stared at us right in our faces.
The International Delegation. of Lawyers which just concluded a Colloquium and issued a critical Initial Findings on the query into the attacks on Filipino judges, prosecutors, lawyers and paralegals was itself the subject of brazen threats, harassment, and surveillance yesterday.
At the press conference at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), a man in civilian clothes who identified himself as a military personnel approached an IBP staff and boasted that “these foreigners are now under surveillance.” Afterwards, he milled around the Delegation and was not-so-discreetly taking our pictures and snooping on our conversation. Meanwhile, a woman in sloppy civilian clothes was also close by and was looking ill at ease, reporting at the top of her voice to somebody over the phone. When asked by our hosts to identify herself, she claimed to be a media person but could not produce any form of identification at all.
Thereafter, the Delegation was closely tailed from the IBP to a mall where we took lunch
by two men in bullcaps riding in tandem on a motorcycle with no plate number. We were tailed until we reached our hotel where more men in civilian clothes and bullcaps were posted at both entrances, obviously stalking us and peering into the lobby and monitoring the ingress and egress of people and vehicles.
When one of the men visibly posted close to the entrance was confronted by the hotel security, he claimed he was waiting for his relative to check in though he was just standing outside pounding incessantly on his mobile phone for several hours already. We learned that he actually left for the night.
Also, a member of our host committee was also tailed presumably by the same group of people when she left the hotel.
Earlier today, a heavily tinted car parked at the basement of the hotel tailed the vehicle of our Delegation even while motorcycle-riding men were idly posted at the hotel’s street corner.
We were made to understand that our Delegation was probably the first foreign group to enter the country and conduct a firsthand open inquiry on the reported rights violations under the present Philippine government.
Under the contemporaneous circumstances and in the context of the usual reaction of the Duterte government towards opinions inconsistent with its official line, these vexatious acts against our Delegation appear to have the fingerprints of intimidation and reprisal by State agents.
It is indeed ironic that our lawyers’ delegation representing various legitimate and prestigious organizations from all over the world which openly met with government offices and officials – other than the police and military which gave us a runaround – will be subjected to brazen harassmen ourselves.
Even more outstandingly ironic is that we as international lawyers
made time to see things firsthand on the reported attacks on our peers and brethren out of genuine concern and who in good faith humbly put forward concrete recommendations for consideration by the authorities are ourselves the object of attack.
The respective embassies and missions of the members of our Delegation, the various international lawyers groups which organized, participated, supported and endorsed us, and the international community have been put on notice of this unacceptable harassment.
Indeed, to see and feel is to believe. And no amount of ad hominem insults and official denials of reality can change this matter of fact. But we will be back. #
References:
Suzanne Adely
Hans Gaasbeek
c/o 09159074183 2019lawyersdelegation@gmail.com
Among the conclusions of the international delegation of lawyers: There has been a sharp increase in human rights violations, particularly extrajudicial killings under the Duterte administration | @anjocalimariopic.twitter.com/2KKUmb4Dmt
The International Delegation of Lawyers which looked into the attacks on Filipino judges, prosecutors, lawyers and paralegals claims it was “the subject of brazen threats, harassment, and surveillance yesterday.” | @anjocalimariopic.twitter.com/gzn2HAuRct
