The Integrated Bar of the Philippines has condemned the “treacherous attack” on lawyer Argel Joseph Cabatbat, who was able to kill one of the assassins after ramming his Mitsubishi Montero into the motorcycles-riding gunmen who attempted to ambush him on Edsa Wednesday night.
The IBP lamented that many other lawyers, judges and court officers have been targeted with “pinpoint accuracy and swelling impunity,” which in turn creates “an environment of fear” in the justice system.
“Lawyers must be able to advocate their clients’ causes free from the corrupting elements of fear and intimidation. This ensures that disputes are resolved only within the confines of the law, the evidence, and an impartial tribunal,” the group said in a statement Thursday.
“Hired killers and their masterminds have no place in civilized society. Regardless of the overwhelming merit a cause of action may present, violence directed against the actors in the legal theater must never be countenanced,” the IBP pointed out.
The national lawyers’ organization appealed to law enforcers, including the National Bureau of Investigation, to thoroughly investigate the incident.
“We thus call on our brothers in the NBI, the Philippine National Police, and other government enforcement agencies to get to the bottom of this incident and the other unsolved incidents that seriously impinge upon the rule of law,” it said.
Cabatbat was riding his sport-utility vehicle on the northbound lane of Edsa when three gunmen, two on one motorcycle and one on another, fired at him.
After surviving the ambush, Cabatbat chased his attackers and managed to ram the two motorcycles with his SUV at Edsa’s northbound lane near Trinoma Mall in Quezon City.
The slain gunman was identified as PO1 Mark Boquela Ayeras through his PNP ID. The other assassins were injured —one was taken to the East Avenue Medical Center, while the other managed to escape.
“While Atty. Cabatbat has survived to relate the circumstances behind the ambush, he is one of the very few who have narrowly evaded the fatal intentions of a barrel of a gun,” the IBP said.