Rights group condemns killing of NUPL lawyer in Negros

CEBU CITY – A human rights group has condemned the killing of one of its lawyers in Negros Occidental Tuesday night.

Victim Ben Ramos, secretary-general of the National Union of People’s Lawyer (NUPL)-Negros Island, was ambushed while heading home.

The killing “adds to the increasing number of lawyers and human rights defenders killed for taking up the cudgels for the oppressed. THIS HAS TO STOP!” said Kristian Jacob Abad Lora of Kabataan Party-list.

“We give our highest salute to Atty. Ben Ramos for being a courageous advocate for the poor and the marginalized,” he added in a statement on Facebook.

Lora urged the government to bring the killers to justice.

Two men on a motorcycle gunned down Ramos in Kabankalan City after he filed a pleading for his client who was a political prisoner.

Lora said Ramos handled cases of human rights violations allegedly perpetrated by policemen and soldiers.

He also handled the case of six people arrested in Mabinay town, Negros Oriental, in what the military said was a gunfight.

Among those arrested was Myles Albasin, a Mass Communication graduate of the University of the Philippines-Cebu.

A former secretary-general of the leftist group Anakbayan, Albasin claimed that she was attending an immersion program with farmers when arrested.

The group tested negative in a paraffin test. /cbb