MANILA – Department of Justice (DOJ) secretary Menardo Guevarra said President Rodrigo Duterte should not be blamed for the high number of lawyers killed since the start of his term.
Guevarra said it is impossible for the President to have a hand in the killings of his fellow lawyers and their death could be attributed to “circumstances.”
“Alam naman nila ‘yan from the beginning that their profession is fraught with danger, I am not in a position to say na may kinalaman kung sino ang presidente,” Guevarra said on Monday.
“The president himself is a lawyer, do you think he will have a policy…that will put his fellow members in the legal profession in personal jeopardy or something to that effect? I don’t think so,” he added.
Based on the latest data consolidated from the DOJ Supreme Court, the Free Legal Assistance Group, and the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, 61 lawyers were killed since 2016 compared to 49 lawyers killed in a span of 44 years. The four decades cover Ferdinand Marcos’ Martial Law which started in 1972 up to June 2016 when Benigno Aquino III’s term concluded./PN
