Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena delivers his message before the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Regional Convention at Waterfront Hotel Lahug. | CDN Photo Tonee Despojo
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Visayas Chapter is calling for justice on the spate of killings of lawyers in the country.
During the IBP Regional Convention with the theme “Cry for Justice”, IBP Eastern Visayas Governor and Lawyer Gonzalo Malig-on Jr. said that the community must not accept the normalization of such killings anywhere in the country.
Malig-on explained that it may create fear among legal aid practitioners to handle criminal cases, particularly drug-related cases.
Lawyer Abdiel Dan Elijah Fajardo, IBP National President and one of the keynote speakers, said that the IBP has formed a task force to document and monitor the investigation on the cases of killings and attempts of killings of lawyers.
Fajardo said that IBP needs to pressure the government to prosecute these cases.
The national president of IBP admitted that there is still no significant progress in the investigation of killings of lawyers.
Meanwhile, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, who was expected to grace the convention as keynote speaker, skipped the event.