An international group of lawyers challenged presumptive president-elect Sen. Benigno Aquino III to immediately and vigorously pursue all legal moves to make accountable outgoing president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her allies for the crimes of plunder, human rights violations and other ‘high offenses’ against the Filipino people.
The International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL), a worldwide grouping of public interest and human rights lawyers, issued the statement during the end of its Fourth Congress held in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Some 35 lawyers, judges, paralegals and law students from Afghanistan, Brazil, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, the Philippines, and Turkey attended the event.
“As an organization of people’s lawyers, we will make it certain that the outgoing Arroyo government will not escape prosecutions and be made accountable for crimes committed against the people,” said Filipino lawyer Edre Olalia, acting secretary general of the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) and who was reelected as IAPL president.
“This is also a litmus test for Noynoy Aquino. His attitude and policy towards human rights will be judged at the first instance on how he will pursue the prosecution and conviction of Mrs. Arroyo, her family members and allies who committed crimes against the people,” Olalia added.
The IAPL has denounced the Arroyo government over its human rights record.
Moreover, Carlos Zarate, NUPL vice president for Mindanao, blamed the “culture of impunity”as the culprit behind the Ampatuan massacre that brutally claimed the lives of 57 civilians, including two women members of the NUPL.
“The prosecution for such monstrous act should not be limited only to the members of the Ampatuan clan and their private army… it should also include police and military officials and other civilian authorities who are equally liable,” Zarate said.
The IAPL also called for the immediate release of 43 Filipino health workers and the prosecution of all persons complicit in the Ampatuan Massacre.
The 43 health workers were arrested in Morong, Rizal on February 6 and were tortured at a military camp for more than two months. Thirty-eight of the Morong 43 are now detained at the Metro Manila District Jail at Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig. (Bulatlat.com)
