MANILA, Philippines — The National Bureau of Investigation is joining the government probe into the killing of human rights lawyer Ben Ramos.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra relayed this in a message to reporters.
The Philippine National Police earlier on Wednesday said that it will conduct an immediate investigation into the killing of Ramos, who was shot dead by unidentified men on Tuesday night.
Ramos is one of the founding fathers of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, a group of human rights lawyers who provides free legal assistance to the victims of human rights violations.
He was one of the lawyers who provided assistance to the families of victims of the sugarcane farmers killed in Sagay last month as part of the Quick Response Team.
READ: CHR dispatches team to probe human rights lawyer's killing
IBP: Ramos’ killing an attack vs rule of law
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines slammed the killing of Ramos. They said that the violent attacks left lawyers “enveloped in fear as they seek to provide access to justice to their clients.”
“Our pens and typewriters are helpless against guns and bullets that have tilted the scales of justice alarmingly in favor of impunity and lawlessness, all in arrant disregard of the sanctity of human life,” the statement penned by IBP national president Abdiel Fajardo read.
The 40,000-strong group of lawyers called on the government to immediately solve the case, especially since not only lawyers, but also prosecutors and judges were targeted by the attacks.
Meanwhile, Hustisya (Victims United for Justice), said that the Duterte administration should be held accountable for the killing of Ramos.
“We call on the rest of the Filipino people to speak out against the killings, whether they be farmers, activists, lawyers, ordinary people. We cannot stomach a regime that kills to stay in power. We should put an end to a tyrant that perpetuates in power, with blood in their hands,” Hustisya said.
The NUPL noted that Ramos is the 34th lawyer killed since the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. Prosecutors and judges were also not spared in the killings under the present administration that vowed a ruthless end to illegal drugs.
The IBP stressed: “Each unsolved and un-prosecuted murder of the officers of our courts of law is an attack against the rule of law. It cripples or paralyzes the moving parts of the justice system upon the well-founded apprehension that the attacks are a direct result of the discharge of their functions."