Sen. Franklin Drilon. INQUIRER FILE / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
“That is worrisome. Who is safe now?”
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon asked this on Thursday as he strongly condemned the killing of human rights lawyer Benjamin Ramos.
“If these killings do not stop and the perpetrators are not immediately brought to court, it will be detrimental to the rule of law,” Drilon said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Ramos was shot dead in his hometown of Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, by two still unidentified suspects.
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He was reportedly the 34th lawyer killed in the two years of the Duterte administration.
Drilon said he condemned “in the strongest term” Ramos’ killing.
“He is a great loss to the legal profession and the Filipino people, especially the oppressed whose rights he had bravely fought for all his life,” he said.
The Minority Leader also described the killing of the human rights lawyer as “very alarming and deplorable.”
Ramos’ “gruesome death” and the previous attacks on other lawyers, Drilon said, were “inevitably sending a frightening signal to the legal profession.”
He called on the authorities and the Department of Justice to do everything to bring the perpetrators to justice the soonest.
“It is imperative that a thorough investigation is launched in order to determine the motive behind the killing and identify those responsible for the killing,” he said.
“We must not let the culture of impunity to continue to prevail over the rule of law and our justice system. We can only do that if these killings are resolved and prevented. The police must have realized this now,” Drilon further said. /cbb