The recent spate of killings of lawyers, many of them in the prosecution service, has prompted a congressman to seek a congressional investigation into the fatal incidents.
Rizal Rep. Juan Fidel Nograles said the investigation was needed to ensure the safety of law practitioners as well as prosecutors and judges.
Nograles filed House Resolution 185 on Monday, saying he believed it was time for the government to act on the killings of lawyers, who he referred to as the “watchmen of the Rule of Law.”
“An assault on the legal profession is an assault on the Rule of Law,” Nograles said, adding that under the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, “governments should guarantee for the functioning of lawyers such that they are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference.”
The Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers was adopted in 1990 by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in Havana, Cuba, said Nograles, who obtained his Master’s Degree in Law from Harvard University.
Nograles, who managed a free legal aid program in Rizal before being elected to Congress, said: “when lawyers are unable to perform their duties because they fear for their lives, the Rule of Law starts to break down.”
“We cannot and should not allow this to happen.”
Since July 2016, 41 lawyers—private practitioners, prosecutors, and judges—have been killed in the country.
Aside from calling for an inquiry into the deaths, Nograles also appealed to the Department of Justice and Philippine National Police to form a task force to take steps to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice.