Negros Occidental lawyers wear black arm-bands to demand justice for lawyer’s slay

BACOLOD CITY — Members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP)-Negros Occidental chapter are wearing black arm-bands for a week to demand justice for the killing of a lawyer known here for handling drug cases.

The protest action kicked off with a Mass at the Bacolod City Hall of Justice lobby about 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday. About 100 lawyers attended.

The lawyers were calling for an end to extrajudicial killings and for upholding the rule of law and judicial processes following the killing of 62-year-old lawyer Raphael Atotubo.

Atotubo was notarizing documents in a makeshift tent in front of his house in Barangay 20, Bacolod, when a gunman alighted from a motorcycle and shot him twice at close range on Aug. 23.

Atotubo, who was reported to have been handling mostly drug cases, succumbed to a bullet wound on the head.

“We also urge everyone to support the indignation protest by wearing black armbands for seven days starting August 29 in order to show our solidarity and demand for justice for the victim-member, Atty. Raphael Atotubo,” the IBP-Negros said in a post on Facebook./lb