Human rights lawyer shot dead in Cebu
A human rights lawyer and founding member of the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) was gunned down on Thursday afternoon in Cebu City, according to a radio report.Lawyer Rex Fernandez succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds, according to DYSS radio. He was seated on the front seat of his Toyota Camry car (ZBL 485), which was traveling along R. Duterte Street, Barangay Guadalupe when he was shot by motorcycle-riding assailants. His driver was reportedly sent to a hospital in Cebu City.Witnesses said they heard six bursts of gunfire from Fernandez’s attackers.Fernandez has been on hunger strike since Aug. 13, 2021, after the management of the condominium located in Barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City reportedly cut off his water supply despite an injunction issued by the court.”No words, indeed. Another colleague has fallen with his boots on. We had lost count. It has not stopped and every lawyer is a sitting duck,” NUPL President Edre Olalia said in a statement.Olalia said Fernandez was a founding member of NUPL in 2007 and Karapatan counsel for years.Olalia described Fernandez as “passionate, intense and brave, even as he was unique in many ways”.”He handled many amparo cases of activists when it was a promising remedy then. Even after he became inactive in NUPL later, he continued to collaborate with fellow human rights lawyers in public interest cases. Before he was silenced, he castigated the present administration which he had hitherto placed his sincere hope on would bring change. He died disillusioned that it was not meant to be. Rest in peace already Rex. You fought a good fight,” said Olalia.Investigation is ongoing as of posting time.
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