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You Are Here:Home → 2021 → April → 27 → Amid threats to life, lawyers continue to fight for justice
Amid threats to life, lawyers continue to fight for justice
Lawyers Czarina Musni, Jobert Pahilga, Catherine Salucon and Angelo Karlo Guillen.
“State forces will always be there to call us into submission, to prevent us from performing our sworn duties as lawyers. But I come to realize that there is no other way to stop the rights violations but to fight. Fight the system that breeds them.”
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
MANILA – Lawyer Angelo Karlo Guillen had to pretend he was dead after unknown assailants repeatedly stabbed him on the night of March 3 along Gen. Luna Street, Iloilo City.
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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.
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