MANILA, Philippines — “Make your stand” and “lend your lives to the poor and the oppressed,” Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno challenged lawyers on Thursday, November 23.
Keynoting the “Pagtugon sa Hamon” summit organized by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Sereno also urged lawyers to help pressure government, to respect human rights, which she pointed out is facing serious threats, pointing to the extrajudicial killings that have marked the administration’s war on drugs.
The summit was attended by a number of noted human rights lawyers’ groups, a number of which have directly challenged the war on drugs and the killings.
“Pressure is important, pressure must be continually built up, in all fora, venues and information platforms, for all public officers to respect human rights, to not issue any statement that encourages a disregard for human rights and to investigate human rights violations,” Sereno said.
In fact, Sereno said, applying this pressure is part of lawyers’ duties.
“Ultimately, you, the IBP, and the legitimate law and paralegal organizations must exert the same pressure on the police and the prosecution to solve and successfully prosecute the assailants and not leave it to just anyone who desires media mileage to own the issue of making the police accountable for unsolved murders, rapes, robbery and widespread thievery,” she said.
She explained that people’s anger at the impunity with which crimes are committed, and the seeming approval of legal shortcuts, including summary executions, “means they are clamoring for genuinely effective police investigation, case buildup and successful prosecution.”
“Impunity is engendered because no one is being caught for crimes that hapless citizens are suffering from,” she said.
“And when murders and rapes are being committed in such frequency and gore, you must expect people to be angry,” she added. “They will not understand if you try to protect the right to life by a drug suspect when the community is of the belief that drug addicts are the perpetrators of these crimes.”
“If the issue belongs to anyone, it belongs to you,” she stressed.
Sereno urged the lawyers to “never allow yourselves to be stymied, muzzled, or cowed” and to “let no political ambition stand in the way of doing what is right.”
“You have all been trained in the law, you know what is right from wrong,” she said. “Make your stand, make your stand in such a way that no one will doubt that your hearts are with the Filipino people, let your voices be heard clearly as a call to our people to united and defend the freedoms that our forefathers dearly paid with blood for.”
“Lend your lives to the poor and the oppressed. This is the law’s calling, this is our people’s cause,” she added.
“If you keep silent about these crimes, wittingly or unwittingly, you will be in the subconscious of our people, be considered as indirectly complicit to what they perceive to be as day to day impunity,” Serno warned.
