Probe of slay try delayed as lawyer still in hospital

ILOILO CITY, Iloilo, Philippines — The investigation into the March 4 attack on a human rights lawyer here has yet to move forward as bouts of severe headache are preventing him from talking to investigators, according to a family member.

“It must be made clear that the only reason why [Attorney] AK cannot yet be interviewed [by investigators] is [due to] his medical condition,” said lawyer Jose Edmund Guillen, the lawyer’s uncle and head of the Public Attorney’s Office in Western Visayas, in a statement on Tuesday.

He said he issued the statement in response to “allegations” that his nephew was not cooperating with police investigators because they were unable to interview him.

Police Maj. Mark Evan Salvo, chief of the Iloilo City Police Station 1, said: “As of now, Attorney Guillen has not allowed us to interview him again.”

AK Guillen suffered stab wounds in the temple and neck after one of two unidentified men attacked him with a screwdriver while he was on his way to his boarding house in Iloilo City.

Not ordinary injury

The suspects, who were wearing ski masks, fled on two motorcycles driven by their companions. They took the lawyer’s backpack with personal belongings and a sling bag containing his laptop, external disks and case documents. His wallet and mobile phone, which were inside his pockets, were spared.

“The wound on [AK’s] head is not an ordinary injury. After his operation, he regularly suffers from bouts of severe headaches. He [also has] wounds on the neck and his shoulders,” Jose Edmund said.

He said his nephew also developed an allergy which prompted his doctors to stop his medications.

Work-related?

“Attorney AK will issue a detailed statement to the authorities as soon as his medical condition permits him. More than anything else, he wants nothing less than the truth regarding the identity of the [suspects], their motives, and if applicable, their handlers,” Jose Edmund said.

Investigators earlier said that robbery could be a motive in the attack but they did not rule out that it could be related to AK’s work.

But the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) and AK’s family and colleagues believed the attack was due to his being legal counsel of members of progressive organizations.

AK, assistant vice president for the Visayas of NUPL, is cocounsel of one of the petitioners questioning the constitutionality of the antiterror law in the Supreme Court.

He also represents two members of the indigenous group, Tumandok, who were arrested in a police operation in Tapaz town, Capiz province, on Dec. 30 last year.

In 2018, AK was among lawyers and paralegals on Panay Island whose photographs were posted along streets in Iloilo City and accused of being “terrorists.” He was accused of supporting and lawyering for the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines and other lawyers’ and human rights groups have condemned the attack on AK.

Records from the Free Legal Assistance Group showed that at least 61 lawyers had been killed since President Duterte took office in 2016, more than the combined number under five administrations—from the martial rule of Ferdinand Marcos starting 1972 to Benigno Aquino III in 2016.