In September of 2021, after falling victim to a series of red-tagging by state forces, Atty. Macababbad was gunned down, sustaining seven gunshot wounds to the head. His name joins the list of the many lawyers murdered by state forces.
Peoples' lawyering—the martyrdom of Atty. Juan Macababbad, defender of Indigenous Rights
In 2018, amid rising tensions between Sarmiento Industries and Lumad belonging to the T’Boli tribe, the Armed Forces of the Philippines murdered eight tribe members and framed it as a gunfight between the New People’s Army and military forces. This incident would be known as the Lake Sebu Massacre.
Atty. Juan Macababbad, chairperson of the Union of People’s Lawyers Mindanao, served as legal counsel for the victims of the bloody massacre in Lake Sebu. Macababbad was a people’s lawyer in every right, he served to defend the oppressed in the court of the rich and powerful, he was an activist being a member of Bayan Muna, and he was a lawyer-activist, and Indigenous Peoples were first-hand witnesses to his noble work.
In a country wherein dissent is as dangerous as threading on a thin wire over a pool of hot lava, people’s lawyering, a brand of lawyering streamlined by Macababbad’s organization NUPL, is a dangerous feat especially when the state sees these lawyers as sympathizers to the cause they try so hard to kill off. Nonetheless, Atty. Macababbad chose to use his profession in the service of brave defenders of freedom, farmers who fight for land, activists, and Indigenous Peoples struggling against powerful and greedy men.
This kind of practice as a lawyer, without a doubt, is the most dangerous, as it puts lawyers in the same crosshair pointed against their clients. There were 61 lawyers killed under former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s violent regime. The number was so high that it surpassed those of all presidents that came before Duterte—a sum of 49 from Ferdinand Marcos Sr. to Benigno Aquino III. Despite the dangers that come with his tasks, this did not stop Macababbad from pursuing his work.
Aside from its dangerous nature, such a practice does not promise a fruitful life if we were to talk about money. But the fact that lawyers such as Atty. Macababbad's engagement in such work only further highlights the sincerity of people’s lawyers.
In September of 2021, after falling victim to a series of red-tagging by state forces, Atty. Macababbad was gunned down, sustaining seven gunshot wounds to the head. His name joins the list of the many lawyers murdered by state forces.
To the people he served, the poor peasants, activists, and Indigenous Peoples of Mindanao, his death means so much more than a name in a list, the life he has offered in the service of oppressed sections of society weighs as much as the land that Indigenous Peoples fight for, and for the same reasons are also targets of state violence. Atty. Macababbad was a brave lawyer who did not back down in the face of fascist repression and silencing. To Indigenous Peoples, such an act is heroism.