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
August 4, 2018

Bounty call by Arroyo lawyer on Makabayan

leaders cheap trick from old playbook

Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio’s bounty offer on Secretary Liza Maza, Satur Ocampo,
Rafael Mariano, and Teddy Casino is bizarre and unsettling at the same time. Where
did he get the money to pay for the reward? Did it come from taxpayers’ money
funneled through the Citizen’s Crime Watch, or from his client former President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo under whose administration these trumped up charges were
initiated? Is he confirming that it is GMA who is behind the revival of the case? Is all
this a sequel of a well-orchestrated plan of persecution against the four lawmakers
who exposed and challenged extrajudicial killings,enforced disappearances and other
human rights abuses during the Arroyo administration?

And who is Atty. Topacio to make such an offer? Is he now the spokesperson of the
police and the military, the principal institutions tasked to implement the policy of legal
offensive against critics? Or is this laughably a publicity stunt to divert the attention of
the public from the shenanigans of his clients – massive corruption involving Wanda
Tulfo-Teo and power-grabbing by GMA?

Such call endangers the lives of our clients by sending in bounty hunters of all sorts,
both public and private, to deal with the matter amidst the present climate of
lawlessnness and abuse of force. Atty. Topacio clearly exploits the circumstances, as
it comes at a time when a judge is set to decide on the matter of the legality of the
issuance of the warrants.

If it is truly opposed to human rights violations, the Citizen’s Crime Watch should best
channel its energies to solving cases of massive human rights violations at present
and extra-judicial killings dating back to the time of GMA. Crimes aren’t solved
through cheap tricks and extra-legal means. Their money on our clients won’t make
us any safer.

We emphasize that Secretary Liza, Ka Satur, Ka Paeng, and Teddy aren't threats to
the lives and liberties of the Filipino people. Perhaps Atty. Topacio, his clients, and
their ilk better prove they aren’t.

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For reference: Atty. Rachel F. Pastores

Managing Counsel, PILC
0927-9219539