US Speaker Pelosi urges probe into shooting of American rights worker in Ifugao

MANILA, Philippines — United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she has called on the Philippine government to investigate the attempted murder of a Chinese-American human rights and environmental defender who was shot in Lagawe, Ifugao in August.

Brandon Lee, an American volunteer of the Baguio City-based Cordillera Human Rights Alliance was shot in front of his house on August 6. 

"Grateful that Brandon Lee has returned home to San Francisco for refuge and care after being brutally shot in the Philippines, where he was fighting for environmental and indigenous peoples’ rights," Pelosi said on her Twitter account.

She added: "I have encouraged the Philippine government to investigate this disturbing crime." 

Grateful that Brandon Lee has returned home to SF for refuge and care after being brutally shot in the Philippines, where he was fighting for environmental and indigenous peoples’ rights. I have encouraged the Philippine government to investigate this disturbing crime.

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) October 29, 2019

Lee, a California native, is back in his home city. He and his mother Louise arrived in San Francisco on a medical transport last Saturday, according to social media posts of Mar Gordon and Matty Haney, district supervisors of San Francisco City and County. 

"It took a movement—here in the Bay Area and US-wide, in the Philippines and internationally to bring him back to safety," Haney wrote on Facebook. 

Lee, also a paralegal volunteer of the Ifugao Peasant Movement and a contributor to online paper Northern Dispatch was among the activists tagged by the military as alleged supporters of the New People’s Army in 2015. 

"Weeks and days before this incident, the 54th [Infantry Battalion, Philippine Army] frequented the Ifugao Peasant Movement office as well as the residences of Brandon and other officers of the Justice and Peace Advocates of Ifugao conversing with them, gathering data, and intimidating them," CHRA said in a report on the shooting by reogional weekly Northern Dispatch.

The Philippines was the deadliest country for environmental and land activists in 2018, with at least 30 recorded deaths, according to watchdog Global Witness.

READ: Attack vs activist in Ifugao underscores need for passage of rights defenders bill