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You Are Here:Home → 2021 → April → 26 → Human rights lawyer Angelo Karlo Guillen: Committed, unshaken
Human rights lawyer Angelo Karlo Guillen: Committed, unshaken
Atty. Angelo Karlo Guillen
MANILA – Because of the volume of work that he had to finish, human rights lawyer Angelo Karlo Guillen goes home late at night.
That fateful night of March 3, the life of Guillen was shaken as two men wearing ski masks attacked him, stabbing him several times with a screwdriver. He was on his way home after a very long day at work.
Guillen survived the attack and has since returned to work.
As a member of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, he has committed himself to defending the defenseless. The cases he is handling includes that of the 16 Tumanduk farmers who were arrested in Capiz and Iloilo provinces on December 30, 2020. He is also the legal counsel of one of the 37 petitioners against the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 in the Supreme Court.
On a late Wednesday evening in early March, Filipino human rights lawyer Angelo Karlo Guillen headed home after a long day at his office in Iloilo, a city renowned for its well-preserved Spanish-era homes in the central Philippine island of Panay.
As he walked to his residence, two men wearing ski masks appeared and started attacking him.
The assailants took his backpack, which contained his laptop and court case files, but left his wallet and smartphone untouched, according to the police report. They escaped with two other accomplices on separate motorbikes, and have never been found.
The 33-year-old lawyer was left slumped on the ground, fighting for his life. When rescuers found him, a yellow-handled screwdriver was still stuck in his left temple.
(Panay Today via Tara Yap)
National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) Visayas Vice President Rene Estopacio said that Guillen, the counsel in one of the 37 petitions filed with the Supreme Court (SC) against the constitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020, survived the attack by two masked men.
Published reports stated the Guillen has been handling several political cases like that involving the Tumandok indigenous people.
“He (Guillen) also represents activists and human rights defenders facing trumped up charges in court including the activists arrested during the police raids in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental in October 2019 and the Tumandoks arrested in Panay in December 2020,” Estopacio said in a statement.
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