Lawyer involved in Sagay 9 case killed in Negros Occidental

FILE: Lawyer Benjamin Ramos, Secretary General for the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) Negros Occidental Chapter. (Photo: Edre Olalia/Facebook)

A lawyer who was part of a quick response team of Sagay massacre was killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen on last night in Negros Occidental.

Lawyer Benjamin “Ben” Ramos, 56, was shot dead in Kabankalan City as he was taking a rest after he had finished working a legal paper of one of his pro bono clients, Attorney Edre Olalia, National Union of People’s Lawyers’ (NUPL’s) president, said in a statement on Wednesday, November 7.

“We are shocked, devastated and enraged at the premeditated cold-blooded murder of our colleague and fellow people’s lawyer, Atty. Benjamin Tarug Ramos, our Secretary General for the NUPL Negros Occidental Chapter,” Olalia wrote.

The group said Ramos, whom they described as “passionate, dedicated, and articulate yet amiable and jolly,” was declared dead on arrival at the hospital after sustaining three gunshot wounds at the right back side and left upper chest of his body.

“Despite limitations, he was for the longest time the “go-to” pro-bono lawyer of peasants, environmentalists, activists, political prisoners and mass organizations in Negros,” the NUPL noted.

Prior to his death, Ramos offered legal assistance to the families of the nine sugarcane workers who were shot dead in Hacienda Nene in Barangay Bulanon, Sagay City.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier tagged the communist rebels as suspects behind the farmers’ slay, saying that it was their “style” to kill their comrades and pin the blame on the government.

Although perpetrators behind the human rights lawyer’s killing have not been found yet, the group said Ramos was “maliciously and irresponsibly” tagged by the police as among those who are part of the “underground armed movement.”

The NUPL said Ramos was the 34th lawyer killed under Duterte’s regime, and the 24th member of the profession killed excluding judges and prosecutors, and the 8th in the Visayas.

“These beastly attacks by treacherous cowards cannot go on. Not a few of our members have been attacked and killed before while literally practicing their profession and advocacies in the courts, in rallies, in picket lines, in urban poor communities, and in fact-finding missions,” it stressed.

“Of late, a number of us have received threats for handling cases of political prisoners, suspected rebels, environmentalists, and suspected poor drug users,” it added.

Former Bayan Muna party-list Representative Neri Colmenares, meanwhile, blamed Duterte’s “red-tagging” in Ramos’s murder.

“Pres. Duterte you are a lawyer. You know you cannot be attacked on the basis of the clients you chose to represent. Your red tagging has led to the death of Atty. Ben,” Colmenares, Ramos’s colleague and friend, said in a tweet.

“When human rights lawyers themselves are attacked, where can human rights violations victims go? This has got to stop,” he added.

The former NUPL president then called on the Supreme Court (SC) to hold the suspects liable for their crimes, stressing that lawyers should not be attacked when they were just merely exercising their profession.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR), for its part, also expressed concern on the continuing violence against human rights defenders, following the killing of NUPL’s secretary general.

“We note that, in April this year, Ramos was included in a poster, which was then disseminated in central Negros town of Moises Padilla, tagging him and other personalities as members of the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army/National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDFP),” it said.

“But, regardless of his affiliations, Ramos continues to be a human and a Filipino whose rights was supposed to be protected by the government, including his right to life,” it continued.

While it called on the government to act on the matter, the CHR said it has sent a quick response team through its sub-office in Bacolod City to probe the case.