Public Interest Law Center

4/F KAIJA Building 7836 Makati Avenue cor. Valdez St., Makati City, Philippines
Tei.No.: (632) 899-3439 • Fax No.: (632) 899-3416 ·Email: publicinterestlawcenter@gmail.com

PRESS STATEMENT
April 25, 2019

Government repressive policies the real

destabilizer, oppressor

Lawyers implicated in the matrix of the so-called ouster plot against the Duterte
administration clapped back at the government for being the real destabilizer.

Atty. Rachel Pastores, managing counsel of the Public Interest Law Center and a
national officer of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, blasted the ouster plot
broadcast and affirmed by Malacañang as laughable and idiotic.

“Our only mandate as people’s lawyers or public interest lawyers is to protect the
rights and interests of the people,” she said.

“It is the government that is destabilizing itself through anti-people and repressive
policies such as the vicious war on drugs which has resulted in extrajudicial killing of
thousands of the poor, its accelerated tax reform program which has diluted family
purchasing power. The government has only itself to blame for the growing discontent
and outrage of the Filipino people,” Atty. Pastores added.

She revealed that the PILC, counsel for NUPL, filed a manifestation in the Supreme
Court to include this latest attack against the latter in its petition for issuance of writ of
amparo and to reiterate their application for temporary protection order (TPO).

On April 15, 2019, NUPL filed an amparo and habeas data petition seeking protection
for its members from attacks and threats to life, liberty and security after being
maliciously tagged by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) as a communist
front.

It was precipitated by the continuing threats, harassment, vilification, and surveillance

in connection with the human rights cases they are handling.

“This latest act of maliciously linking us human rights lawyers to the wildly imagined
ouster plot only bolsters our petition for a writ of amparo and habeas data. The
petition is intended to put a stop to the intensifying attack against us, lawyers,” Atty.
Pastores said.

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For reference: Atty. Rachel F. Pastores

Managing Counsel, PILC
+639279219539

PILC, a law firm with a strong public interest mandate, represents NUPL, a group of
human rights lawyers, in the petition for issuance of writ of amparo and habeas data
for the organization and its officers.