The Supreme Court deserves praise and support for finally denouncing and taking initial action on the alarming litany of lawyers, including judges, who have been killed and intimidated during the past several years.

The strong and unequivocal statement of the Supreme Court is a feather in its cap, and its awaited final action can be a crowing jewel in its ministry of the law. 

To buttress its resolve, the high court made the latter part of April 2021 the deadline for the submission of all requisite information from lower courts, law enforcement agencies, and lawyers’ groups for it to take further actions, “including the amendments of the relevant rules, or if necessary, the creation of new ones.” 

Another immediate action which the Supreme Court can take is to issue the prayed for temporary restraining order (TRO) to suspend the implementation of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020 which has emboldened security forces in red-tagging and terrorist-baiting of lawyers who have challenged the constitutionality of ATA, and the near fatal assault on lawyer Angelo Karlo Guillen, a counsel in one of the 37 petitions against the ATA. 

EDCEL C. LAGMAN