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Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Gunmen kill human rights lawyer, driver
MANILA -- Motorcycle-riding gunmen killed a human rights lawyer and his driver Tuesday in an eastern Philippine province, police and a human rights group said.
Police said Gil Gujol and his driver, Danilo France, were attacked in Gubat town in Sorsogon province after the lawyer appeared in a court hearing.
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Sorsogon provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Joel Regondola said investigators were still investigating possible motives for the attack.
Marie Enriquez, head of the Philippine human rights group, Karapatan, believe the killing was politically motivated since Gujol, who has handled human rights cases for over 10 years, represented left-wing activists and one former communist rebel leader who was assassinated in May. Gujol also represented opponents of a controversial Australian mine on Rapu-Rapu island, she said.
Enriquez said the attack on Gujol came a day after Cris Frivaldo, a brother of a left-wing party member who was killed in January, was fatally shot by masked men as he sat in his house in nearby Irosin town.
The attacks have brought the number of victims of political killings to 801 since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took office in 2001, according to Karapatan.
About half of the victims belong to activist groups and the left-wing Bayan Muna party. Another 206 people have been abducted during the same period and remain missing, Karapatan said.
International human rights groups such as the London-based Amnesty International and the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong have expressed grave concern over the rising number of political killings.
In an unprecedented move, the American, Australia-New Zealand, Canadian, European, Japanese and Korean business chambers as well as an association of multinational companies issued a joint statement last month condemning the killings, saying "such violence has no place in a modern democratic state."
Arroyo has denounced the killings and has created a fact-finding body to investigate them. (AP)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Bacolod. (December 13, 2006 issue)
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