The Public Interest Law Center (PILC) said Fernandez and company were kept inside the Army General Hospital (AGH) since March 25 without communication to the outside world save for a few visits.
“He had been awaiting his next hearing in June 2019 for possible dismissal of the rest, for failure to prosecute.”
‘When Patigas slowed down, they opened fire, hitting him in the leg and, as he fell, finished him off with the headshot.’
“Whatever the suppression, however, they failed to stop her continuing courageous actions, inspiring global citizens throughout the world, and thus was selected her (Cariño) as the winner of the 2019 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights,” it added.
“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.
Abducted community organizers were among the members of Kadamay who occupied the abandoned government housing in Pandi, Bulacan.
“The recent circus tour of the NTF in diplomatic missions in Europe is a mere frantic attempt by the Duterte government to discredit organizations such as Karapatan, Ibon and the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, which are exposing the issues and crimes that this regime wants buried in this cycle of red-tagging. But this has serious implications, particularly with human rights defenders on the ground.”
“The horrific nature and extent of the victims’ wounds belie any claim that the force used against them was – by any stretch of the imagination – reasonable, and erodes the Philippine National Police’s credibility as to its claim that the killings were carried out under justifiable circumstances.”
“Stopping the reparation and recognition of our claims may be tantamount to non-acknowledgement of victims of martial law.”
The IADL said that the military’s red tagging of NUPL contradicts Article 16 of the Basic Principles, which mandates governments to ensure that lawyers are able to perform all of their professional functions “without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference.”
They [policemen] pointed their guns at Djastin who raised his hands and said, “Huwag po. Huwag po.”