NUPL lawyer threatened, red-tagged before death, widow tells Court of Appeals

The widow of Benjamin Ramos, a founding member of the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers  (NUPL) who was murdered last year, testified at a Court of Appeals (CA) hearing on the union's request for protection from alleged state-perpetrated attacks.

In a judicial affidavit that was adopted as her testimony Thursday afternoon, Clarisa Ramos said Benjamin had received death threats, experienced surveillance, and been falsely labeled as a lawyer and recruiter of the New People's Army since he started handling agrarian and human rights cases.

"The threats to his life continued and heightened under the current administration," she said in her affidavit. After the hearing, she told reporters the attacks — which she claimed were by the military — on her husband were "deliberate" and "systematic."

Benjamin, 56, was shot dead by motorcycle-riding gunmen in Kabankalan, Negros Occidental November 2018. He was declared dead on arrival at the hospital. According to the NUPL, he was the 34th lawyer killed during the Duterte administration.

Before he died, Benjamin handled a case involving the massacre of nine farm workers in Sagay City, among other cases involving persons accused of being communist rebels.

The lawyer's death is one of the examples of attacks the NUPL had cited in its plea for a protection order from what it believes are state-perpetrated attacks against its members.

Government lawyers insist the NUPL's petition for the issuance of a writ of amparo should be denied because it fails to attribute specific unlawful acts to the respondents, including President Rodrigo Duterte and and several military officials.

In response, the NUPL said they are standing on the principle of command responsibility.

In her affidavit, Clarisa said there has been "no clear and serious" police investigation on her husband's death.

"The National Bureau of Investigation also conducted its own investigation but until now there has been no result," she said.

Clarisa heads PDG Inc., a non-government group that assists farmers, farm workers, and fisherfolks' associations in Negros Island.

Apart from Clarisa, NUPL lawyer Maria Catherine Dannug-Salucon was also presented as a witness on Thursday afternoon, with her judicial affidavit similarly being adopted as her testimony.

The CA ordered protection for Salucon in 2015 after she alleged receiving death threats and experiencing labeling, surveillance, and verbal intimidation from military officers. The Supreme Court affirmed the appellate court's decision in 2018.

The military officials who failed to show up at the previous hearing last month were still absent on Thursday's hearing. Their lawyers said the generals were waiving their appearance at the proceedings.

"The audacity in yakking against us to our extreme prejudice outside the courtroom could not be matched by any modicum of fortitude by at least showing up in court," NUPL president Edre Olalia said in a statement.

"This betrays how cavalier and reckless the still continuing smear attacks against us are," he added.

The CA will resume hearing the NUPL's petition on July 18. — MDM, GMA News