IBP urges authorities to probe attack on lawyer in Abra

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) on Wednesday called on the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to investigate the attack on a lawyer in Bangued, Abra.

Atty. Hamilcar Bigornia, the IBP Abra Chapter president, and his aide were wounded after they were attacked on Sunday inside his law office.

According to the IBP, two unidentified men entered Bigornia’s office at 9:30 a.m. on January 29.

The IBP said that one repeatedly stabbed Bigornia’s aide before also stabbing the lawyer. Another aide of Bigornia then came and shot one of the suspects.

"The incisive and growing impunity towards lawyers, judges, and officers of the Court has fostered an overwhelming climate of dread," the IBP said in a statement.

"We thus appeal to our brothers in the NBI, PNP, and other law enforcement agencies to investigate this matter as well as any other unresolved instances that seriously impinge upon the rule of law," it added.

In November 2022, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) in Geneva, Switzerland, filed a complaint before the United Nations, urging it to conduct an investigation into the killings of lawyers, judges, and prosecutors in the Philippines.

The NUPL said it had recorded 86 killings of lawyers, judges, and prosecutors out of 262 work-related attacks in the past 15 years. —VBL, GMA Integrated News