A human rights lawyer working on the case of nine farmers who were massacred in a sugar plantation last month was shot dead Tuesday night in the city of Kabankalan, Negros Occidental, about three kilometers from a police station.
Benjamin Ramos, 56, a founding member of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, which provides free legal services, was shot dead by gunmen on a motorcycle at 10:30 p.m. along Rojas Street, police said.
Chief Supt. John Bulalacao, director of the Police Regional Office 6, said the gunmen shot Ramos while he was talking to an owner of a sari-sari store. Ramos took three gunshot wounds in the chest and was taken to the Holy Mother Mercy Hospital in Kabankalan City, but was pronounced dead by upon arrival.
Bulalacao said he had already ordered an immediate investigation to solve the crime and assured the Ramos family that the killers would be arrested.
Ramos was assisting the National Federation of Sugar Workers, whose nine alleged members were killed last month.
Police said the nine NFSW members were killed by the New People’s Army in Hacienda Nene in Sagay, Negros Occidental, a claim the communist rebels denied.
The PNP has filed multiple murder charges against seven members of the NFSW over the massacre, but the federation was contesting them.
The NUPL condemned Ramos’ killing, saying it was shocked, devastated and enraged at the cold-blooded murder of one of its founders.
“The passionate, dedicated and articulate yet amiable and jolly Ben, was a founding member of NUPL. Despite limitations, he was for the longest time the go-to pro-bono lawyer of peasants, environmentalists, activists, political prisoners and mass organizations in Negros,” said the union’s president, Edre Olalia.
Police said the murder could be linked to Ramos’ work as a human rights lawyer, noting that he had received numerous death threats.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Wednesday ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to look into his death, as well as the massacre of the nine farmers in Sagay town last month.
“I have directed the NBI to include this development [Ramos’ killing] in their investigation on the Sagay farmers’ massacre and determine if there is any indication that the incident is related to the previous killings of the farmers,” the Justice secretary said.
The farmers were reportedly killed inside the sugar plantation at around 9:45 pm on Oct. 20, a day after the farm owner harvested sugar cane.
The victims were resting when 40 armed men attacked them.
Three leftist lawmakers condemned Ramos’ killing.
“We strongly condemn the killing of attorney Benjamin Tarug Ramos. He was lawyer for UP Cebu alumna and political prisoners Myles Albasin and the rest of the Mabinay 6. He was also part of the quick response team for the massacre of nine farmers in Sagay last month. Attorney Ramos was shot dead last night while on his way home from filing a motion for a political prisoner at Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, according to reports from Karapatan Negros Island,” ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio said.
“With the worsening culture of impunity under the Duterte administration, attorney Ramos is now the 34th lawyer killed under the two-year administration of President Duterte, according to the National Union of People’s Lawyer,” Tinio added.
Ramos was also victim of the administration’s red-tagging, with public posters vilifying him as a member of the New People’s Army,” said Tinio’s fellow, ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro.
“The attacks against human rights defenders must end and justice must prevail. The Duterte administration has been targeting human rights defenders as more human rights violations committed by the military and the police are recorded,” Castro said.
Anakpawis Party-list Rep. Ariel Casilao said the only beneficiaries of Ramos’ death were the killers of the nine farmers in Sagay, and those who arrested the NFSW members.
“The oppressed people of Negros lost another champion of human rights,” Casilao said.
Negros islands, for the longest time has been a hotbed of landlordism, where big land owners dominate the political sphere in the province, Casilao said.
“Government land reform is a total failure in the province much of it caused by the strong opposition of big landlords which employ paid armed goons like the RPA-ABB to terrorize poor farmers asserting their right to land. Local state forces are complacent of the existence of these armed groups as they failed miserably to disband [them],” he added.
