THE Supreme Court’s Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) has initiated its inventory of criminal cases involving lawyers who were killed, harmed, threatened or attacked under the present administration.
In line with OCA Circular 37-2021, Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez directed first and second level courts to provide data on the matter by filling a nationwide survey form within 10 days.
Marquez said the directive was in pursuant to the January 6, 2021 memorandum of Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta directing the OCA to address the “growing concern over the continued attacks against lawyers and judges.”
Last January, upon the directive of CJ Peralta, Marquez held a series of consultations with the Department of Justice, Department of National Defense (DND), Department of the Interior and Local Government, Commission on Human Rights, law- enforcement agencies and lawyers groups on the issue of killings of lawyers and judges.
Marquez said he has been directed by CJ Peralta to submit a full report with measures to address the killings after meeting with concerned government agencies and other stakeholders.
Earlier, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has also started its inventory of cases on lawyers killed under the administration of President Duterte.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the inventory would include cases under investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), under preliminary investigation by the prosecution service, and those undergoing trial in courts.
Guevarra said he is expecting to receive the inventory on the killings of lawyers soon.
“The data will come from all prosecution offices throughout the country,” Guevarra noted.
The Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) said last Monday there has been a total of 61 lawyers, including prosecutors and magistrates, who have been killed under the Duterte administration.
Last January, 53-year-old lawyer Winston Intong from Malaybalay, Bukidnon, was shot dead by two men onboard a motorcycle. In 2011, Intong was reportedly arrested along with three other persons, during a buy-bust operation inside his office in Valencia City.
The lawyer was allegedly caught selling shabu to an undercover agent of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency but was later acquitted of the illegal drugs charges.
Last March 3, Angelo Karlo Guillen survived an attack by still unidentified men in Iloilo City.
Guillen was stabbed using a screwdriver in the head, neck, shoulders and upper back before the assailants fled onboard motorcycles that were driven by their accomplices.
The suspects also took with them Guillen’s backpack containing his laptop as well as his soft and hard case files.
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