MANILA, Philippines — The Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) said the sedition complaint filed by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) against its members was meant to “intimidate and harass” lawyers. “The charges filed by the CIDG are designed to intimidate, harass, and interfere with our lawyers who are just doing their jobs as human rights defenders,” FLAG said in a statement on Friday. ADVERTISEMENTOn Thursday the PNP-CIDG filed sedition and other complaints against Vice President Leni Robredo and 35 others, including FLAG chairman lawyer Chel Diokno and FLAG Regional Coordinator for Metropolitan Manila Theodore Te over their alleged link to the “Ang Totoong Narcolist” video series. The six-part video series claimed that the family and close allies of President Rodrigo Duterte were involved in the illegal drug trade. Aside from the FLAG lawyers and Robredo, the PNP-CIDG also included in the sedition complaint ranking officials of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and members of the Otso Diretso senatorial slate.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer July 20, 2019 05:15 UTC