Accents
By Julia Carreon-Lagoc

CODAL speaks up

What is CODAL? Why must it speak up? And what can it do? The legal profession is out to defend its own, hence the formation of the Committee for the Defense of Lawyers or CODAL.

CODAL gives a situationer on the attacks against lawyers, the latest of which is the murder of Atty. Norman Bocar, chair of Bayan Muna-Eastern Visayas, a “dastardly, cowardly, and treacherous” act strongly condemned by the Iloilo Legal Assistance Center (ILAC condemns Bocar murder, The News Today , Sept. 6, 2005). You are about to read something resembling an obituary.

The legal profession in the country, says CODAL, is currently under attack with the series of killing and harassment against lawyers and judges. Excluding that of Atty. Bocar's murder last Sept.1, four members of the legal profession have been killed since January 2005. Public Defender Teresita Vidamo of the Public Attorneys Office was shot on Feb. 9 in Las Pinas, Metro Manila. Atty. Vidamo was handling controversial land and labor disputes at the time of her death. The police has announced the arrest of a suspect in the case.

Human rights lawyer Felidito Dacut was shot on March 14 in Tacloban, Leyte, by armed men riding in a motorcycle. Atty. Dacut was the incoming chair of the Legal Aid Committee of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Leyte Chapter, when he was assassinated. He was then handling cases involving human rights and labor disputes. Until today, the case remains unsolved as the police have not announced any suspect in the crime.

Atty. Ambrosio Matias, who was counsel to peasant organizations in Central Luzon, was gunned down on May 8 in Llanera, Nueva Ecija. The gunmen also killed his son Leonard Matias, a law student in one of the law schools in the country.

Eleven cases of violent attacks, harassment and assassination attempts against other lawyers have also been reported in the first quarter of this year. Atty. Ramon Cabalida of the Public Attorneys Office was ambushed on Feb. 19 by armed men resulting in the death of his driver. An assassination attempt was made on UN Judge ad litem Romeo Capulong on March 7 aside from being subjected to other threats and harassments. On March 22, human rights lawyer Atty. Charles Juloya suffered serious gunshot wounds when he was shot by an assailant. On May 4, another human rights lawyer, Atty. Pergentino Derion, was attacked; his vehicle was burned.

It is most surprising that in a document published by the Armed Forces of the Philippines titled Knowing the Enemy , the Protestant Lawyers' League (PLL) and the Free Legal Aid Group (FLAG), both human rights lawyers group, were listed as influenced or controlled by “ enemies of the state .” Other CODAL members have been the subject of threats and harassment while attending to their clients involved in land and labor disputes.

The CODAL situationer goes further. In 2004, seven members of the legal profession were killed: human rights lawyers Juvy Magsino (+Feb. 13), Victoria Mangapit Sturch (+April 13), Arbet Yongco (+Oct. 11), Edgar Calizo (+Nov. 22), and RTC Judges Paterno Tiamson (+Feb. 21), Milnar Lammawin (+Apr. 24), and Voltaire Rosales (+June). Since 1999, nine judges have been killed. After the overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, more than 18 members of the legal profession have been killed.

The escalation of attacks can no longer be denied, and so on April 30, 2005 CODAL was born with individual lawyers and law groups banding together along with students and the faculty of law schools, former public officials and commissioners of government bodies, and lawyers doing private practice. CODAL counts among its members the Public Interest Law Center (PILC), Pro-People Law Network (PLN), and the Pro-Labor Legal Assistance Center (PLACE).

On June 10, 2005, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) passed a resolution on the attacks against lawyers and judges in the Philippines which was unanimously adopted by 337 lawyers, jurists, judges, justices, law professors and law students from 50 countries during its General Assembly, XVI Congress in Paris, France. The resolution states in part: “[A]dequate protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms to which all persons are entitled, xxx requires all persons [to] have effective access to legal services provided by an independent legal profession. Paragraph 18 thereof declares that ‘lawyers shall not be identified with their client's causes as a result of the discharge of their functions.' These attacks violate these national and international principles and threaten the practice of law and the administration of justice.

“These attacks which are committed with impunity,” IADL concludes, “indicate that the Philippine Government has failed to protect lawyers, judges, and other members of the legal profession.”

The IADL “pledges support to the campaign on the attacks against lawyers and judges in the Philippines and to arouse international opinion on this issue and bring it to the notice of the legal fraternity throughout the world.” The international body “urges President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to condemn these attacks and call for the speedy investigation of these crimes and the prosecution of those accused of committing the same.”

Ours is only to hope that the IADL resolution bears fruit. (Comments to lagoc@hargray.com)