As Zara Alvarez is laid to rest, colleagues say state forces should be investigated

Zara Alvarez, the human rights worker killed in Bacolod City last week, was laid to rest on Wednesday amid calls from her colleagues for investigators to look into the alleged involvement of state forces in the "cold-blooded murder."

Human rights watchdog Karapatan, of which Alvarez was a member, said the slain rights defender had faced "trumped-up" charges, detention, death threats, and red-tagging from state forces.

Alvarez, a paralegal of Karapatan, was shot dead on August 17, the day that Randall Echanis, an activist and peace consultant, was buried after being killed in Quezon City.

Alvarez was the 13th Karapatan worker killed under the Duterte administration, the organization said.

The Department of Justice as of last week was reviewing a recommendation to investigate Alvarez's death under a mechanism that aims to prosecute politically-motivated killings.

"Any independent investigation on her cold-blooded murder should first look into State forces and their complicity and involvement — precisely because of the pattern of threats and vilification she and other slain human rights workers had been subjected to from the police and the military," Karapatan said Wednesday.

Karapatan described Alvarez as a "fierce and determined human rights defender."

The group said investigators should be credible, transparent, independent. It also said relatives of victims and human rights workers should be allowed to participate in the investigation.

The Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives has filed a resolution seeking an investigation into the killing of Alvarez. —Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas/KBK, GMA News