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NUPL asks law enforcers to find lawyer's attackers

Philippines | National

NUPL asks law enforcers to find lawyer's attackers

By Jeffrey Damicog

A group of lawyers has asked the government’s law enforcement agencies to find the attackers of lawyer Angelo Karlo Guillen who was stabbed in the head and at the back in Iloilo City Wednesday night, March 3.

(Panay Today via Tara Yap)

National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) Visayas Vice President Rene Estopacio said that Guillen, the counsel in one of the 37 petitions filed with the Supreme Court (SC) against the constitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020, survived the attack by two masked men.

Published reports stated the Guillen has been handling several political cases like that involving the Tumandok indigenous people.

“He (Guillen) also represents activists and human rights defenders facing trumped up charges in court including the activists arrested during the police raids in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental in October 2019 and the Tumandoks arrested in Panay in December 2020,” Estopacio said in a statement.

“On Labor Day last year, he was arrested after responding to the illegal arrests of 42 activists who were protesting the extrajudicial killing of Bayan Muna Iloilo coordinator Jory Porquia,” he said.

“NUPL calls on authorities to promptly and properly investigate the attempt on the life of Atty. Guillen,” Estopacio said in a statement.

He said that since President Duterte assumed the post of Chief Executive, the NUPL has recorded at least 54 killings of lawyers and judges.

“In December 2020, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, NUPL, and various legal groups raised concerns over the increasing and alarming incidents of attacks on lawyers before the Supreme Court,” he added.

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