IBP seeks UN probe on Duterte tirade vs Sereno

MANILA, Philippines — Lawyers’ groups yesterday asked the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers to take action on President Duterte’s statements deemed as a threat to the independence of judges and lawyers in the country.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), National Union of People’s Lawyers, Alternative Law Groups, Ateneo Human Rights Center, Free Legal Assistance Group, Manananggol Laban sa EJKs and the International Pro Bono Alliance submitted their report to UN special rapporteur Diego Garcia Sayan.

A key concern of the groups is Duterte’s call for fast-tracking the impeachment process against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, in which he also tagged himself as an “enemy” of the top magistrate.

“The recent tirades of the President against the Chief Justice do not sound at all foreboding. They rather expectedly punctuate the long-winded attacks on judicial independence that began almost two years ago, when the Chief Justice dared resist an apparent intrusion into judicial power,” the groups said in a statement.

“Judicial independence is fundamental to the protection of human rights,” IBP national president Abdiel Dan Elijah Fajardo explained in a press conference in Quezon City yesterday.

Lawyer Arpee Santiago, of the Ateneo Human Rights Center, said the executive department appeared to have been exercising its influence on the two other co-equal branches against Sereno.

“Impeachment is a political process but the systematic attack shows how the executive department intends to influence the actions against the Chief Justice,” he lamented.

Aside from Sereno, the lawyers groups said Duterte also threatened other lawyers in other instances.

They specifically cited the incident when Duterte berated Fajardo at an IBP event after the IBP head said the ombudsman, who was planning to investigate Duterte’s alleged hidden wealth, was threatened to also be subjected to an investigation by an anti-corruption group created by Duterte.

They said lawyer Benjamin Ramos, who worked with peasant groups and human rights groups, was also tagged as a communist rebel and his photo appeared in a police poster.

The groups also recalled when Duterte warned lawyers that if they represent people involved in drugs they will also be included in the government’s war on drugs.

Lastly, they cited the various cases of killings and attacks on lawyers and judges, including Judges Godofredo Abul Jr. and Victor Canoy, Surigao City Prosecutor Manuel Tesiorna and lawyers Jonah John Ungab, Hermie Aban and Edwin Pura.

As this developed, Malacañang maintained yesterday that Duterte’s rebuke against Sereno is not an attack on the judiciary nor an affront to judicial independence.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. contradicted the lawyers’ groups. “The President’s rebuke of the Chief Justice must therefore be taken as a dislike of the Chief Justice and not an attack on the judiciary or an affront to judicial independence,” Roque said in a statement.

Roque defended Duterte’s tirades against Sereno, which the Palace official claimed was prompted by the CJ when she accused the President of being behind the impeachment moves against her.

“For the longest time, the President has been silent about the issue, notwithstanding the allegations made by CJ Sereno against the Chief Executive in many public fora saying the latter is behind her impeachment,” he said.

Roque said the President merely reacted to Sereno’s accusations.

Roque noted that the calls from some of the SC justices for Sereno’s ouster negate the claim that Duterte actually directed the impeachment moves.

“The call to impeach the Chief Justice did not originate from the executive. Let the facts speak for themselves: some justices of the Supreme Court appeared in the House of Representatives and testified against the Chief Justice during the committee on justice impeachment hearings,” he noted.

Roque also noted that Sereno’s own colleagues pressured her to go on indefinite leave, apparently a show of loss of confidence in the CJ.

“The Chief Justice was made to go on indefinite leave by her colleagues to protect the integrity and reputation of the court after it became clear that the CJ failed to file some of her annual SALN,” he said, referring to the statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.

In addition, Roque said the SC allowed the oral arguments for the quo warranto petition filed by the Office of the Solicitor General.

A lawyer, Roque noted that action against Sereno did not come from the executive branch but from the SC justices themselves.

Meanwhile, the camp of Sereno is unfazed by the plunge in her public satisfaction ratings that hit a record-low of -7.

Lawyer Josa Deinla, one of Sereno’s spokespersons, said the results of the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey insofar as the embattled CJ is concerned was expected, considering the moves before both Congress and the SC to oust her from the top judicial post. – With Christina Mendez