HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Int’l lawyers groups probe killings of RP lawyers
Wife of Slain Lawyer Testifies, Calls for Justice

Amelia Dacut, wife of slain lawyer Felidito Dacut, appealed to an international fact-finding team of European lawyers to help her tell the world that not even lawyer-victims get justice under the current administration.

BY JOHANN HEIN B. ARPON AND MAUREEN JAPZON
Bulatlat

TACLOBAN CITY – Amelita Dacut, wife of slain lawyer Felidito Dacut, testified before an international team investigating the killings of lawyers in the country, and asked for the team’s help in her search for justice.

Dacut was the regional coordinator of Bayan Muna and a member of the Board of Directors of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines when he was shot dead in Tacloban City in May 2005. 

The fact-finding team of European lawyers visited Tacloban City in Leyte province, where victims from Leyte, Samar and Cebu converged.  The mission was an initiative of the Lawyers without Borders and the Dutch STICHTING ADVOCATEN VOOR ADVOCATEN (SAVA) or the Lawyers for Lawyers Foundation, the Amsterdam Bar Association, the Netherlands Bar Association, International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) and Lawyers for the World, with the Counsels for the Defense of Liberties (formerly Committee for the Defense of Lawyers or CODAL) as the host in the country.

Other violent attacks against other law practitioners in Eastern and Central Visayas were also documented by the team, such as the threats and harassment to lawyers Ernesto Peñaflor of Calbayog City, Pergentino Deri-on Jr. of Oras, Eastern Samar, Gina Co, a lawyer handling high-profile cases both of Cebu City, and the brutal killing of lawyer Arbet Yongco, also of Cebu City. 

Let the world know

The interview with Dacut was emotion-filled, as she expressed dismay over the slow dispensation of justice for her husband. Bless commented that just seeing Dacut’s little daughter with her T-shirt which say “I MISS MY DADDY” was enough to get tears in one’s eyes. 

Dacut appealed to the team for help, saying, “I know that you can help us in letting the rest of the world know that even lawyers…have not yet been accorded justice in the current administration.” 

Dacut said her husband had no personal enemies.  She said: “I understand what happened to my husband is not only an attack to his person but also to the IBP, the mandated organization of law professionals to which he was elected member of the Board of Directors, in-charge with the Legal Aide Program.” 

Dacut described her husband as “a dedicated and principled lawyer, a human rights defender and civil liberties advocate and one who practiced and popularized the so-called pro-people lawyering or developmental lawyering.  True to his profession, he had always used the court as a venue of the struggle for basic rights.”

Dacut recalled that aside from her husband’s appearance and defense in court in behalf of his clients, he also held lectures and seminars on human rights, civil liberties, trade union rights and agrarian reform.  In 1987, he was a member of the church-based Protestant Lawyers League of the Philippines (PLLP), which assisted victims of violations of human rights. 

In 1992, Dacut organized the Visayas Institute for Research and Trade Union Education (VIRTUE), which advocated trade union rights and of which he became its first executive director.  In 1994, he was executive director of the Sentro para sa Tunay na Reporma sa Lupa (Center for Genuine Agrarian Reform or SENTRA), which gave legal assistance to farmers. 

Judge Jan Bless, Dutch team leader of the eight-member international fact-finding team said, “We think that killings of lawyers and judges in the Philippines  has really become a widespread concern...lawyers and judges are killed because of human rights issues, because of being on the left side, because of belonging to the opposition.” Bulatlat 

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