Malaya Movement calls for Justice for AK Guillen!
The Malaya Movement strongly condemns the recent attack on progressive lawyer and dedicated human rights advocate, Attorney Angelo Karlo “AK” Guillen, last week in the city of Iloilo. Heading to his car, Wednesday evening, Atty. AK was chased down and mauled by two masked and unidentified individuals who stabbed him with a screwdriver and fled the scene with the attorney’s backpack and side bad. Atty. AK is in recovery, but may suffer further complications resulting from the stab wounds in his left temple and back.
Presidential Spokesperson, Harry Roque, condemned the attack of Atty. Guillen, ordering the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigations (NBI) to investigate the case of Atty. Guillen’s attack; however, it is difficult to take this seemingly hollow performance of concern seriously. Duterte has been designing a dictatorship since he stepped into office with policies and laws that have calibrated the civilian bureaucracy and state security forces to carry out a brutal campaign on the people, it’s organizations, lawyers/judges, and the media-at-large for being critical of a neglectful, and vicious regime.
Despite the PNP’s flimflam to proclaim the attack on Atty. AK was a common case of robbery or even suggest that the attack was the result of workplace violence, the real reason is blatantly clear. Atty. AK is a fierce and fearless advocate for the rights of the most dispossessed. He is currently a petitioner in the Supreme Court’s Oral Arguments process deliberating the constitutionality of Republic Act 11479, or commonly known as the Anti-Terror Law. He also recently represented the Tumandok tribal leaders who survived the bogus operation of the PNP and AFP where 9 other Tumandok leaders were killed. He has consistently stood on the right side of the law and defended those who the Duterte regime has made enemies of the state for simply exercising their civil rights to organize and speak out against corruption and injustice. Let us make no mistake about it—this is why he was attacked.
“What hope for ‘rule of law’ in the Philippines is there, when the very ones who have dedicated themselves to the study and application of our nation’s laws—especially in the defense of and advocacy for the interests of the broad majority of the Filipino people—are they themselves attacked or assassinated?”, says Yves Nibungco, member of the National Secretariat of the Malaya Movement”.
Extrajudicial killings of lawyers and judges in the Philippines, since the president stepped into office, has not relented. Since July 2016, 56 lawyers or judges have been killed (that’s an average of 12 lawyers a year), not counting the number of lawyers who had survived the attempt on their lives. Every judge whose life was threatened was ultimately killed. There have been eight so far, and the last slain judge occurred this past November 2020. With Lt. General Antonio Parlade at the helm of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC)—Duterte’s band of war-crazed chiefs and generals-turned-bureaucrats—and the state of de facto Martial Law that is maintained by Duterte’s Anti-Terror Law, the attacks and killings on lawyers, judges, and activists will not only continue, but intensify and increase.
Our global Filipino community must unite and demand an end to tyranny and impunity for us to hold on to any true sense of hope. Let’s follow the fierce example of Atty. AK, in boldly serving the people without fear or reservation, and continue to arouse, organize, and mobilize our Filipino communities wherever we are so we can stand as one voice against the Duterte machine of lies and bloodshed.
We call for the immediate investigation into Atty. AK Guillen’s attack and that his perpetrators are brought to justice. We reiterate our call for Duterte’s resignation and to take with him his cabal of government goons such as Lt. Gen Parlade of the NTF-ELCAC and PNP Chief Debold Sinas! His reign must end for these senseless attacks to cease!
Stop the attacks! Stop the killings! Defend Human Rights Defenders!
EMERGENCY RALLY: Stop the Attacks on Activists in the Philippines! Defend Southern Tagalog!
Join us for this online rally to demand justice for the “Bloody Sunday” killings and for the immediate release of all those arrested! We’ll be joined by speakers from the Philippines who will give updates on the situation in Southern Tagalog.
When: Thursday, March 11, 5pm PT | 7pm CT | 8 pm ET
Register:http://tiny.cc/DefendST311
