Human rights advocate groups and relatives of alleged victims of extrajudicial killings filed a disbarment case against former President Rodrigo Duterte with the Supreme Court on Friday.
The groups cited conduct unbecoming of a lawyer and violations of the Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability as grounds for the complaint.
According to Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay, the complaint is part of the effort to hold Duterte accountable for his alleged violations of the human rights of some Filipinos related to the bloody campaign against illegal drugs during his administration.
Palabay added that those who filed the complaint hoped that the Supreme Court would favor them because the former president should no longer serve as the lawyer of his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, in the impeachment proceedings that she will be facing.
The vice president is currently facing three impeachment complaints.
It can be recalled that the former president appeared before the Senate on October 28, 2024, as a part of an inquiry into his administration’s drug war campaign. During the hearing, Duterte claimed responsibility for all the actions of the police in the implementation of the campaign.
On November 13, 2024, Duterte also attended the QuadComm hearing of the House of Representatives on the alleged extrajudicial killings during the drug war implementation.
Meanwhile, former presidential legal adviser Salvador Panelo in a statement on Friday said the disbarment lawsuit against the former president has no legal basis because “he has not violated” any laws while practicing law.
Panelo added that a citizen cannot be called a criminal without being convicted by a competent court of the commission of a crime.
He also emphasized that “no admission was made on extra-judicial killings.”
As of this writing, the camp of the former president has not yet issued any statement regarding the disbarment case.
