Attack on lawyer in Iloilo unlikely to be just a robbery case — NUPL, IBP

LAWYERS groups doubt that the attack on one of their colleagues involved in the 37 petitions filed against the anti-terrorism law, who was seriously injured Wednesday night in Iloilo City, was a theft-motivated case. National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) President Edre U. Olalia, in a press briefing Thursday, said the snatching of the belongings of Angelo Karlo T. Guillen, the group’s assistant vice president for Visayas, “is a decoy or distraction.” NUPL Vice President Rene C. Estocapio said Mr. Guillen, who has also been handling human rights cases, has received many life threats before the incident, and “in fact changed his residence because he was stalked.” Two still unidentified men stabbed Mr. Guillen with a screwdriver while he was walking back to his hotel at the Iloilo City Center. Mr. Estocapio confirmed in a mobile message that Mr. Guillen “is now stable with normal vital signs, although he sustained multiple wounds in the face, neck and the back.” The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), called the latest attack on a member of the legal community as “criminality in the highest degree.” IBP President Domingo Egon Q. Cayosa said they are waiting for updates from the Supreme Court on the Summit on Lawyer Security, which is supposed to be held this March. Mr. Cayosa said they “hope it happens before Chief Justice (Diosdado M.) Peralta retires.” NUPL said at least 54 lawyers and judges have been killed since the Duterte administration started in 2016. —