This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 11, April 24-30, 2005
News
Analysis
When Lawyers Are Lawyers
Most Filipinos have lost hope
in the legal profession and in the judiciary that is supposed to uphold the law
and to carry the scale of justice with fairness and “cold blooded” neutrality.
That is almost a conclusive statement - until you realize that there is a breed
of lawyers who still make a difference.
By Bobby Tuazon In the Philippines, law
still retains the prestige as the “noblest” profession. This, despite the stigma
that it has earned in a country where law is considered the bridge to politics,
corruption and instant opulence. “Rogues in robes” is used to describe judges
who bend the rules, accept bribes and convict a poor man in order to free the
filthy rich from the gallows. Most Filipinos have lost
hope in the legal profession and in the judiciary that is supposed to uphold the
law and to carry the scale of justice with fairness and “cold blooded”
neutrality. That is almost a conclusive statement - until you realize that there
is a breed of lawyers who still make a difference. One of these lawyers is
Felidito C. Dacut. For 18 years, Dacut, a lifetime member of the Integrated Bar
of the Philippines, was lawyering for workers in Samar, where he was born, and
in the neighboring province of Leyte
over such labor issues as low wage and harassment. He became a member of the
Protestant Lawyers League of the Philippines (PLLP) in 1987 and had since then
been a counsel for National Federation of Free Labor Unions (Naflu), the
National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) and several other labor and farmers
unions and federations. Dacut was later involved in
the No. 1 party-list Bayan Muna (nation first) as its regional coordinator for
Eastern Visayas. Dacut is one lawyer known
for his compassion for the poor. He would, for instance, pay for the transport
fare of his own clients despite the fact that his legal services were pro
bono. Last March 14, Dacut was
with a companion on board a Filcab jeepney on his way to Tacloban City where he
was going to buy milk for his daughter. A motorcycle caught up with the jeepney
and a man armed with a silencer-equipped revolver fired a single bullet into the
lawyer’s chest. Witnesses said there were two motorcycles involved in the crime
one of which had the assassin and his motorcycle driver on board. Dacut never made it to the
hospital. He was 51. La Union At 42, Charles C. Juloya is
known in the Ilocos region as a labor and human rights lawyer. In 2002, he
served as one of the lawyers for the Cojuangco-owned La Tondeña Distillers in
Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan, some 170 kms north of Manila. Juloya, a former councilor
of Aringay, La Union, also successfully defended the “Abra 14,” a group of
church and lay and NGO volunteers who were charged with the death of ex-priest
Conrado Balweg in 1999. He is also defending six farmer activists whom the
police charged with criminal offenses in connection with their alleged links to
the New People’s Army (NPA). At noon of March 22, Juloya
was crossing the highway toward his office in Barangay (village) Benito Sur,
Aringay when a man in his mid-30s and armed with a cal.45 pistol fired at him.
Two of the eight shots fired hit him in the abdomen and left foot. The lawyer survived the
attempted assassination. Another well-respected
lawyer, Romeo T. Capulong, was a target of assassination on March 7 in Barangay
Parukut, Quezon, Nueva Ecija. An IBP figure himself, Capulong, now 70, hogged
the headlines in 1995 when he defended Flor Contemplacion, a Filipino caregiver
hanged by Singaporean authorities. He has been chief legal
consultant in the peace talks between government and the National Democratic
Front of the Philippines (NDFP). He also served as senior counsel for workers of
Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac who went on strike in November last year. To Capulong, who continues
to serve as an UN judge ad litem, death threats are nothing new. He was forced
to go on exile in the United States to elude arrest by Marcos agents during the
dictatorship and, since the time he returned to the country, has been the
subject of military surveillance. Martial
law Threats to the vocation of
lawyering for the poor particularly those who are involved in public advocacy
and political dissent are nothing new, either. During the Marcos dictatorship of
1970s-1980s, scores of human rights and progressive lawyers were silenced either
by the gun, by abduction or by harassment. Most of those who were
killed were in the military hit list. On the other hand, despite overwhelming
evidence against them, the perpetrators of the crimes – at least those who were
identified positively - were never prosecuted. This in turn further emboldened
the military in its alleged campaign to silence critics particularly those it
accuses of having links with the left. The campaign went on from the Aquino
presidency to this day. Of late, the most gruesome
slaying of a lawyer took place on Feb. 11 last year. Juvy Magsino, vice mayor of
Naujan, Oriental Mindoro, was killed in cold blood: seven bullets pierced
through her body, three in the head. A companion, Leima Fortuna, was also killed
allegedly by military hitmen. Only 34 when she died,
Magsino lawyered for the Mangyans as well as fisherfolk, farmers and political
activists. She chaired an environment group, Alyansa Laban sa Mina (alliance
against mining) in Naujan in its struggle against nickel mining in her province.
The lawyer’s active support for the poor earned the ire both of the politicians
and military in her province. From the words of then Col. Jovito Palparan, 204th
Brigade commander, Magsino came under military watch. Lawyering for the poor has
been an endangered profession under the Macapagal-Arroyo government’s “war on
terror.” Lawyers groups, particularly the PLLP and the Free Legal Assistance
Group (Flag), which was active in the Marcos years, are tagged as “enemies of
the state” in the military hit list as attested to by the Armed Forces’ “Knowing
the Enemy” power-point presentation. By today’s militarist standards, they are
thus “terrorists.” There is repugnance in some AFP generals’ statement that it
is up for the lawyers and the other groups tagged in the hit list to prove their
innocence – or that the document serves as a warning for them not to be
associated with the Left. IBP
resolution In a recent resolution, the
IBP condemned the attacks against lawyers and other unarmed dissenters as
“violative of human rights and threats to the practice of law.” Earlier, the
Europe-based International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) called on the
international community to condemn the “politically-motivated” killings and
asked the Macapagal-Arroyo government “to bring the perpetrators to the bar of
justice.” This week, the preparatory
committee of the campaign for the defense of lawyers warned that the spate of
killings can terrorize lawyers and their families and “threatens the legal
profession’s capacity and will to fulfill its sworn (professional) obligation”
to help in the administration of justice and serve their clients. The Macapagal-Arroyo
administration is under pressure to rein in her military and stop the senseless
killings. Considering that at least 34 unarmed political activists and critics –
including church people, party-list members and lawyers – have been slain since
January this year and not a sign of intervention is coming from the presidential
palace, speculations are rife that it is the military that is taking the
upperhand at least in national security matters. Or that the whole country has
been placed – albeit undeclared – under martial law. Bulatlat © 2004 Bulatlat
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