“We call on the Supreme Court to not let this pass and to take immediate, concrete and firm action to protect justice actors and rule of law. The Court must hold accountable those who threaten and malign our judges and lawyers.”

By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – More than 400 lawyers formally asked the Supreme Court to act on the attacks on judicial independence.

This is after former National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) Spokesperson Lorraine Badoy red-tagged and insinuated to kill Manila Presiding Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar and her husband.

They sent their statement to the SC justices on Sept. 30.

READ. SC en banc is taking action against a certain Lorraine Badoy for red-tagging Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar.

Statement issued by @SCPh_PIO pic.twitter.com/hBJLP3QNxo

— Bulatlat (@bulatlat) September 27, 2022

The lawyers said that they are heartened by the high court’s public statement sternly warning those who incite violence against the judges and their families. However, they said that they “look forward to the specific action that the Honorable Court will finally take on the matter to exact accountability from Ms. Badoy and others.”

“We also hope that the Court will address Ms. Badoy’s attacks against human rights lawyers which were part of her attacks against Judge Malagar,” the lawyers said.

Aside from Malagar and her husband, Badoy also red-tagged National Union of Peoples’ Lawyer President Edre Olalia, Maria Sol Taule and Public Interest Law Center’s Rachel Pastores. Badoy implied that the three were involved in drafting the decision to junk the proscription to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines as terrorist.

Read: Manila court junks petition to declare communist groups as terrorists

In its earlier statement, the lawyers said that “these baseless allegations against Judge Malagar and members of the Philippine Bar are beyond the bounds of fair and reasonable criticism.”

“We call on the Supreme Court to not let this pass and to take immediate, concrete and firm action to protect justice actors and rule of law. The Court must hold accountable those who threaten and malign our judges and lawyers,” the statement read.

Among the signatories are former SC Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes P. Loreno, Dean Pacifico Agabin of Lyceum College of Law, Commission on Human Rights former commissioner Gwen Pimentel-Gana, former elections commissioner Rowena Guanzon, former SC spokesperson Theodore Te, Angelo Karlo Guillen, and Evalyn G. Ursua. (RTS,RVO)