Atty. Rex Fernandez, a human rights lawyer, was shot dead yesterday, August 26. His driver, on the other hand, was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound through the spine. The veteran lawyer recently made headlines when he went on hunger strike over a dispute

with the management of his Mandaue City condominium unit, though it is still not clear if the killing was related to it. However, according to the chief investigator, Leo Villarino, “let us be reminded that Attorney Rex Fernandez was holding sensational cases.”

Fernandez also served as a co-counsel of the eight Cebu activists arrested in a protest against the anti-terror law in 2020.

This is not the first time a lawyer was killed in less than a year. The rampant killings of human right defenders, activists, and government critics

will not stop any time soon, especially under an administration that is hell-bent on suppressing those who call out and demand for a better society. At the end of the day, the subject always returns to the issue of free speech and our right to organize.

For years it has been difficult in calling out and fighting for genuine social change, and even more difficult since the passage of the Anti-Terror Law last year. Freedom of speech has been compromised because anyone who dares to criticize the government

or to fight for their rights, especially those of the marginalized, are more often than not, subjected to red-tagging, or worse, killed.

As an organization for the people, Bukluran Students’ Alliance - Integrated Students’ Organization condemns the assassination of

Atty. Rex Fernandez, all the lawyers, activists, and anyone who advocates for the poor and marginalized that were killed under the Duterte administration. Children, senior citizens, workers, or the poor, no one is safe from this savage regime.

Let us not give them the chance to kill more defenseless individuals. Together, we must call for the end of Duterte’s bloody regime and hold him and his administration accountable.

#JusticeForRexFernandez
#EndImpunity
#WakasanAngRehimen
#AtinAngBukas