Human Rights Lawyer Survives Attack After Pretending to Be Dead

Human Rights Lawyer Pretended to Be Dead and Survives a Deadly Attack

A human rights lawyer Angelo Karlo Guillen survives an attack where he was stabbed in the head and shoulder after he pretended to be dead.

According to the report of Inquirer, one of his friends said he did not fight back and and pretended to be dead that make the suspects left him until the authorities searched him on a road in Iloilo City.

 Rights Lawyer Survives Attack

The suspects also took its backpack and shoulder bag that contains a laptop, external disk, and documents of the cases it was handling. The suspects did not take his wallet and cellphone from Guillen’s pocket.

According to Rene Estocapio, vice president for Visayas of the National Union of Peoples ’Lawyers (NUPL), it was late at night when Guillen came home and was attacked while entering his rented house.

READ ALSO: 9 Activists Killed, 6 Arrested During the Police Operation in Calabarzon

Based on the initial police investigation, the motive of the incident was robbery but for NUPL claimed that it was to kill Guillen who was the group’s assistant vice president for Visayas and secretary general of the Panay chapter.

 Rights Lawyer
Image Source: CNN

NUPL also believes the attack was related to the case documents held by Guillen. Guillen is NUPL’s representative in the New Patriotic Alliance, Karapatan, Movement Against Tyranny and other groups questioning the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.

He was also the legal counsel to some Tumandok members who were arrested by the police in an operation on December 30, 2020, in which nine people were killed for allegedly resisting.

Witness Barangay Roosevelt Chair Julie Catamin was also killed a few days later. Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon stressed said the assassination attempt on Guillen is particularly disquieting in light of the issue of Red-tagging.

“His case lays the basis for the need for a stronger policy against Red-tagging. The attempt on the life of Guillen sends a chilling effect on members of the legal profession — lawyers, judges, and justices,” he said.

“When lawyers can no longer do their job freely and without fear of being killed, that is when the rule of law begins to weaken,” Drilon added.

READ ALSO: Deadly Shootout Over Land Dispute in Antipolo Left 3 Killed, 7 Arrested

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