The Integrated Bar of the Philippines will tap lawyers to provide free legal services to victims of extrajudicial killings and human rights violations in the war on drugs of the Duterte administration.
IBP national president Abdiel Dan Elijan Fajardo also called on their members to uphold the rule of law, access of justice and human rights amid extrajudicial killings of drug suspects.
“While many lawyers decry these atrocities, no concrete actions are being taken either due to lack of channels to reach out to victims or lack of capacity to take on the peculiarities that accompany the handling of these kind of cases,” Fajardo said, in press conference.
The mandatory organization of lawyers in the country cited as reason for such move the death of 91 people —including teenager Kian Delos Santos—in the “One Time Big Time” anti-narcotics operations in the National Capital Region, Bulacan and Cavite last August.