Supreme Court urged to disbar ex-President Duterte for legal ethics, human rights violations

Families and human rights defenders file disbarment case against former President Duterte. (Photo courtesy of Karapatan)

By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Human rights defenders and relatives of victims asked the Supreme Court to disbar former President Rodrigo Duterte on Jan. 17 (Friday) for violations of the Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability (CPRA) and for conduct unbecoming a lawyer.

According to the complainants, Duterte showed gross disregard for ethical standards and the rule of law through his public admissions regarding the death squad under his regime which resulted in violence and gender-based abuse, intensifying culture of impunity and extrajudicial killings.

In a statement, Karapatan Secretary-General Cristina Palabay said that they “support this initiative as part of efforts to hold Duterte accountable for violations of human rights.”

Among the complainants is lawyer Vicente Jaime Topacio, son of National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultants Agaton Topacio and Eugenia Magpantay who were extrajudicially killed in their home in November 2022.

Read: Eugenia Magpantay and Agaton Topacio: Heroes of the poor

“With Duterte’s invocation of his role as lawyer and prosecutor as some kind of authority in his recent testimony at the hearings at the House of Representatives and the Senate, we believe it is time for victims of human rights violations to speak up. It is time for us to appeal to the Supreme Court to reinforce how the law should work in the Philippines, how the law should shield victims of human rights violations as they seek justice and should ensure dignified and proper conduct in the practice of law,” Topacio said.

Read: Duterte’s testimony affirmed that drug-related extrajudicial killings a state policy — right groups

Llore Pasco, whose sons Crisanto and Juan Carlos were found dead on October 12, 2017, killed in an alleged police drug war operation, is also a petitioner. She said that she and the loved ones of those killed in Duterte’s so-called war on drugs seek justice. “I was there when Duterte testified at the Quadcom hearings and he was obviously trying to intimidate us. We ask the esteemed justices of the Supreme Court to protect us from people like him who use their status as a lawyer to try to make wrong and reprehensible things seem right.”

“We ask that the law be fairly rendered, so that the most basic right to life of Filipinos is protected and so our people will trust and believe in our courts and the possibility of justice,” Pasco said.

For Liezel Asuncion, widow of Bayan-Cavite coordinator Manny Asuncion, Duterte “should be disbarred for his unacceptable conduct and pernicious abuse of his position that devalues human life and undermines respect for civil liberties.”

Manny Asuncion was one of the nine activists killed on March 7, 2021 in Southern Tagalog (also known as Bloody Sunday).

Read: ‘Bloody Sunday’ spells killings, mass arrests in Southern Tagalog

Palabay urged the Supreme Court to “spare us from Duterte’s further antics and unabashed demagoguery. He degrades our public discourse on human and people’s rights, but much, much worse, he attacks and seeks to destroy the human dignity of ordinary Filipinos.”

She added that their petition for disbarment is especially relevant since Duterte presented himself as one of the legal counsels of his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, who is currently facing at least three impeachment complaints. “We fervently hope the disbarment complaint will be given due course by the Supreme Court.”

Other complainants are Rosenda Lemita (whose daughter Ana Mariz and son-in-law Ariel Evangelista were killed during the Bloody Sunday police raids) and Lean Porquia (son of slain Bayan Muna–Panay coordinator Jory Porquia). Joining them are human rights defenders former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, Karapatan’s Palabay, Fr. Manuel Gatchalian, SVD, Sr. Eleanor Llanes, ICM, Hustisya Secretary-General Ofelia Balleta, Norma Dollaga, Orly Marcellana, Bayan Secretary-General Raymond Palatino, Tina-Agel Romero and cultural workers Bonifacio Ilagan, JL Burgos, and Kiri Dalena. (RTS, DAA)