ROXAS City – A human rights lawyer here survived an ambush yesterday morning after attending a court hearing.
Atty. Criselda Azarcon-Heredia posted on her Facebook page that her car was strafed in Sigma, Capiz around 11:30 a.m.
She was with her 26-year-old daughter who was driving the vehicle and client Jimmy Dordas during the ambush.
The Heredias were unhurt but the client sustained minor injuries.
The vehicle sustained nine bullets holes.
Heredia said the target of the assailants – armed men in at least one motorcycle – could either be her or her client.
In a statement, lawyers group National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) Panay chapter held state security forces accountable.
Heredia, according to NUPL Panay, had been red-tagged in posters put up in Iloilo City that tagged her and several other lawyers as “minions of the Communist Party of the Philippines.” She was also personally threatened by a military agent who visited her office and warned her to slow down on her human rights advocacy.
Apart from being a lawyer, Heredia is also a cultural worker who used to perform musical presentations and mounted painting exhibits in both Iloilo and Roxas City.
She was tailed in November 2018 when she visited the wake of slain Negros Occidental human rights lawyer Benjamin Ramos.
NUPL Panay said the attack came in the wake of the call of international organizations to President Rodrigo Duterte to protect lawyers in the Philippines.
Since 2016, 47 lawyers, including judges and prosecutors, have been killed.
“We condemn this latest attack against human rights lawyers. This is indicative of the deteriorating human rights situation in the country where all critics who raise legitimate demands, including human rights defenders, are deemed as targets,” human rights alliance Karapatan said in a statement.
It added: “We attribute this attack to the vicious and ruthless state forces of the Duterte government, given Atty. Heredia’s work and advocacy for political prisoners and for the marginalized.” (Janess Ann J. Ellao, Bulatlat.com/PN)
