By Joseph B.A. Marzan
A lawyer who is known to defend cases of progressive organizations and causes in the Western Visayas region was stabbed evening of Wednesday, Mar. 3, 2021.
Unidentified suspects attacked Atty. Angelo Karlo Guillen with a screwdriver around 9:15 p.m. on Mar. 3 at Gen. Luna Street in Iloilo City, according to reports by alternative media outlet Panay Today.
The Iloilo City Police Station confirmed the attack on Guillen.
Guillen is the Secretary-General of the Panay chapter, as well as Assistant Vice President for Visayas of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL).
NUPL is one of the organizations which had been red-tagged over the past years, alleging them of being members or sympathizers of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its wings, the New People’s Army (NPA) and the National Democratic Front (NDF).
Among the recent cases that Guillen is handling under NUPL Panay is the December 2020 Tumandok incident in Capiz and the organization’s petition against Republic Act No. 11479 (Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020).
He was also arrested during Labor Day last year amid a protest condemning the killing of activist Jory Porquia amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Shortly after news of the incident broke, NUPL President Atty. Edre Olalia issued a statement calling the attack “too brazen” and “too evil”, with the NUPL also putting out a separate statement condemning the attack.
“Atty. Angelo Karlo “AK” Guillen is our Asst. Vice Pres for Visayas. He is our co-counsel in our Petition vs the ATA. He is one of the best and the brightest, among the boldest and youngest. Hold tight, AK. Show these cowards what a fighter you are,” Olalia said in a statement published on his personal Facebook account.
The law students’ arm of NUPL Panay also put out a statement considering the attack as “part of the targeted effort against lawyers and other human rights defenders.”
“The attack on Atty. Guillen should be seen in the context of systematic, continuing, and increasing attacks on human rights and human rights defenders. Atty. Guillen has been red-tagged several times just like other peoples’ lawyers and human rights defenders who were tagged as ‘terrorists’ or ‘communists’ and were subsequently attacked and harassed,” said the statement by NUPL Panay Law Students on their Facebook page.
As of this writing, NUPL Panay President Atty. Rene Estocapio told Daily Guardian via text message that the screwdriver has yet to be removed from Guillen’s head and a computer tomography (CT) scan had also been recommended.
As of 11:43 p.m., Guillen was reported to be in stable condition and was also said to be conscious and responsive.
