Decency and Dissent | National lawyers oppose SC's outer decision thru quo warranto

On May 15, 2018, "Decency and Dissent," an official statement, was posted by the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL) on Facebook. This statement seeks to condemn the Supreme Court's decision to ouster the Chief Justice of the Philippines through a petition for quo warranto under Rule 66, instead of recognizing the Senate's sole power to remove impeachable officers.

In a show of solidarity and indignation, lawyers, law students and different law groups marched to the Supreme Court today to oppose the continuing attacks against judicial independence and to express dissent on what they call as an evident and brazen pattern of an impending authoritarianism.

"The legal community has spoken : we express our strongest opposition against the ouster of the Chief Justice through a Quo Warranto proceeding not only because it is legally erroneous and unconstitutional, but more importantly, because it practically decapitated the judiciary and sent a chilling effect. Obviously, the decision has laid the predicate for authoritarianism as it completes concentration of power in the Executive. Attacks against judicial independence and the rule of justice place our democracy in peril," National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL) Secretary-General Atty. Ephraim B. Cortez, said in a statement.
The NUPL encouraged all members of the legal profession, law students, and court workers to stand up and rise against this de facto dictatorship.

"We are calling on members of the legal profession, law students, and court workers to make our voices heard even outside the courtroom and seek constitutional redemption from those that undermine our supposed democratic institutions,” Atty. Cortez added. ###

References:

Edre U. Olalia
NUPL President
+639175113373

Ephraim B. Cortez
NUPL Secretary General
+639175465798