Two senators condemned the ruthless killing of another lawyer who was shot to death by still unidentified assailants in Cebu City.
Senator Leila de Lima said the death of Atty. Joey Luis Wee is another “horrendous reality check on the state of the rule of law” in the Philippines.
Wee was shot twice by the assailants at the stairs of the building of his law office in Cebu City on Nov. 23, Monday. He is reportedly the 53rdassassination in the list of judges, lawyers and prosecutors who were killed under the Duterte administration.
“Slain in broad daylight; and an even more blatant affront to the law – he was killed in his turf where he should have felt most safe, where he studies the cases of his clients so he can fight for them.
What does this say about the safety of our people?” De Lima said in a statement.
“When lawyers and judges are killed in their very offices and their own chambers – the sentinels of the rule of law to whom those whose rights and freedoms are transgressed run to, how do we assure the public that they are safe?” she lamented.
That is why, De Lima said, she is appealing to law enforcers to set their priorities straight and resolve Wee’s case and similar killings that happened before.
“Enough with your obsession with red-tagging individuals who are only exercising their right to speak in a democracy,” the detained senator said.
“Stop spending public money on your vile attacks against human rights defenders, actresses and beauty queens who only dared to speak up,” added the senator.
Sen. Richard Gordon also condemned the killing of Wee whom he described as a brilliant lawyer and was one of the top guns of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG). “His passing is a loss to the judiciary,” Gordon said.
Gordon also called on the authorities to take action and look into these killings and ensure that the culprits will be brought to justice.
“A lot of our lawyers and judges have been killed. Who will fight the powerful if our lawyers, who are representing the victims, are being murdered?” said Gordon, who chairs the Senate committee on justice and human rights.
“We must show our countrymen that there is justice in this country and we should not let them lose faith in the judicial system,” he stressed.
‘’And so, I call on the authorities to take action now and look into these killings so that the culprits will be brought to justice. Once again, these killings must stop!’’ he stressed.