AdU legal aid office hails acquittal of 2 clients arrested over protests

MANILA, Philippines — The Legal Aid Office of the Adamson University College of Law on Monday welcomed the acquittal of two of its clients who were arrested on Sept. 21 last year, in connection with the Baha Sa Luneta protest.

Lawyer Kathy Panguban, director of the Legal Aid Office, said the acquittal was the result of the grant of their demurrer to evidence, pointing out that the decision confirmed “that no individual should be imprisoned on the basis of nothing more than an accusation, some conjecture or entirely made up evidence.”

“Their arrest in relation to the Sept. 21, 2025 anti-corruption rally serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing imperative to defend civil liberties and to be vigilant against the potential for the law to be used as a weapon against legitimate dissent,” she said on Facebook.

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READ: CIDG summons four individuals over Sept. 21 violence

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Through the joint supervision with the lawyers of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers-National Capital Region, law student practitioners went through the prosecution witnesses very carefully and brought to light the inconsistencies in their statements.

Panguban expressed hope that people have seen “that it is simply impossible to make an arrest while holding a [police] shield with both hands, especially when you only have two hands, not three.”

“Even more so, an officer who was not even present at the scene cannot possibly have made the arrest, and you cannot simply dismiss this as a typographical error in your sworn statement,” she added.

For Panguban, the acquittal was more than a legal win, saying that this was the very essence of Clinical Legal Education – “a real opportunity for students to engage with injustice, to stand up for the truth and to learn what accountability really means.”

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“To our future lawyers this is a win on one hand and a challenge on the other. You must never be content in simply knowing the law. You must have the courage to question injustice, to stand up for the oppressed, to protect civil liberties and to hold the powerful to account,” she said.

Last year, police arrested over 200 individuals — including more than 80 minors — amid the protest and the chaos that erupted at the foot of Ayala Bridge and the Mendiola Peace Arch, prompting human rights groups to condemn law enforcement for supposedly not exercising maximum tolerance.