MANILA: The number of lawyers killed in nearly five years into the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte
(pic) is higher than murders in the legal profession combined in the past six administrations spanning 44 years, a list collated by the Free Legal Assistance Group (Flag) showed.
Flag has tallied 61 lawyers slain since June 2016, while a total of 26 killings of lawyers were recorded since 1972, during the Martial Law rule of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. to 2016, the end of administration of former President Benigno Aquino III, Duterte’s predecessor.
A separate list culled from the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice, showed 49 killings from Marcos to Benigno Aquino III administration. The number is still higher than the murders recorded just five years into the Duterte administration.
Broken down, data from Flag showed seven lawyers killed or disappeared in Marcos rule; nine in the administration of the later Corazon Aquino; none in former President Fidel Ramos’ administration; two in former President Joseph Estrada’s term; nine in former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration, and one in Aquino’s term.
Flag Metro Manila coordinator Theodore Te acknowledged that there may have been more killings under Marcos’ martial law rule. “The list is not intended to be comprehensive, it is far as we know. There are more names that are certainly not there,” he said. Te added: “Killings over private disputes by private persons are not included as they wouldn’t directly cover a violation of human rights.”
Earlier, Flag reported that of the 61 killings in Duterte’s term, 26 are tagged as work-related, 15 as drug-related, 12 due to personal motives while motive in 15 other cases remain unknown.
“The fact that almost half of the killings were due to work-related or possibly work-related motives is an indicator of the growing danger of practising the legal profession in the country,” it added.
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