MANILA, 12 November 2026 — Four lawyers representing farmers, workers and other marginalized communities recounted death threats, surveillance, red-tagging and retaliatory criminal complaints at a forum convened by the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) at Adamson University today.
The forum, “Safeguarding the Legal Profession: Addressing Attacks and Ending Impunity,” examined attacks experienced by Attys. Rey Gorgonio, Bartolome Rayco, Catherine Dannug-Salucon and Fidel Santos, and the failure of existing remedies to provide effective protection and accountability.
Gorgonio, chairperson of the NUPL Negros Chapter, has faced death threats, red-tagging and surveillance, including while meeting with clients. He took over as counsel for Paghida-et sa Kauswagan Development Group after its previous lawyer, Benjamin Ramos, was killed in November 2018. Gorgonio and development workers from the organization have sought judicial protection through the writs of amparo and habeas data.
Rayco’s family found two bullets tied with black ribbons at the entrance of their eatery in Legazpi City on 28 August 2026. A note addressed to him warned: “MALAPIT KA NA!!” The following day, a transport leader whom Rayco had represented received a materially similar threat. NUPL has called for an independent investigation into the threats and their possible connection to his professional work.
Dannug-Salucon reported renewed police profiling despite a 2015 Court of Appeals judgment, affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2018, directing officials and their successors to protect her and her family, investigate the surveillance and harassment, and disclose official records concerning her. Her experience raises the question of whether court protection can be effective without sustained compliance by the agencies concerned.
Santos faced a cyberlibel complaint filed by North Luzon Mineral Resources Corporation after publicly raising concerns about mining exploration in Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya. A separate complaint was filed against fellow counsel Edgardo Balgos. Prosecutors subsequently dismissed both complaints for insufficiency of evidence. NUPL said the dismissals did not undo the time, expense and anxiety imposed on the lawyers, or the burden on the communities they represent.
In his discussion on cold cases, Atty. Angelo Karlo T. Guillen, NUPL Vice President for Visayas, drew a direct link between military operations and attacks on lawyers and human rights defenders in areas such as Negros. He cited the extrajudicial killings of people’s lawyer Benjamin Ramos and human rights worker Zara Alvarez.
Guillen said red-tagging was repeatedly used to portray victims as enemies of the State and acceptable targets for attack. He stressed that the pattern has persisted for decades, citing the killings of Attys. Juvy Magsino on 13 February 2004 and Felidito Dacut on 14 March 2005.
The Caravana Filipina’s June 2025 report, Black Robes, Red Targets, covering attacks on legal professionals between 2016 and 2023, found that only one of the killings it examined had proceeded to trial. The other cases had been prematurely classified as cold cases during the initial investigation.
The cases form part of a continuing pattern documented by NUPL. As of October 2025, the organization had recorded 50 work-related attacks and threats against lawyers under the present administration, including six killings and three attempted killings.
“Our clients already struggle to find lawyers they can afford and trust. When their counsel is threatened, forced to withdraw, or killed, they may be left to face a powerful adversary alone. Thus, attacks on lawyers become another means of denying justice to the marginalized and oppressed sectors they serve,” NUPL Secretary General Atty. Josalee S. Deinla said in her opening remarks.
NUPL called for an independent protection mechanism led by the Bar, with the participation of human rights lawyers and organizations whose members face threats. Deinla said lawyers need confidential reporting, prompt assessment and urgent legal and security assistance, without fear that information they disclose will reach those threatening them. She stressed that the State remains responsible for protection, investigation and prosecution.
In a recorded message to the forum, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Margaret Satterthwaite called for an independent national protection mechanism, an end to red-tagging, and prompt and impartial investigations into attacks. (Watch full message here: https://youtu.be/zn000hKErbM)
“When lawyers are intimidated into silence, it is not only lawyers who lose their freedom. It is the people they represent who lose access to justice,” Satterthwaite said.
“We will measure progress by whether a threatened lawyer receives protection in time, whether an investigation leads to prosecution, and whether a community can assert its rights without losing its counsel to fear or violence,” Deinla said. ###
