Lawyers must be protected from any form of harassment that may threaten their legal profession, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) said on Saturday, as it expressed its support for lawyers from the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) who have been subjected to courtroom Red-tagging.
In a statement, the IBP said it stands in solidarity with the NUPL’s letter to the Supreme Court seeking protection mechanisms for lawyers under threat and guided by international standards such as the Council of Europe’s Convention on the Protection of Lawyers.
The NUPL, in its letter filed on Friday, also sought the high court to convene a national dialogue between the bench, bar and civil society groups to formulate institutional safeguards for members of the legal profession facing threats.
The lawyers cited the instance wherein they were Red-tagged within the courtroom during a case pending before a regional trial court in Metro Manila wherein a counsel for one of the defendants submitted a supposed list of ‘underground mass organizations and front organizations’ of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front.
The list explicitly named the NUPL as one of the supposed organizations, according to the lawyers, an accusation they had since debunked.
‘The IBP stands in solidarity with the prayer to the Supreme Court, as we believe that lawyers are the guardians of fundamental human rights, such as the right to a fair trial, freedom of speech, and association,’ the IBP said.
‘Protecting lawyers ensures they can fearlessly defend these rights against infringement by governments or other powerful entities,’ it also said.
The IBP also pointed out that an attack on any lawyer, considered as an ‘agent of justice,’ would risk undermining the entire justice system, as well as ‘curtailment of truth and justice.’
‘An attack on one of us is an attack on the administration of justice,’ it said. /mr