Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Tuesday he will order the Administrative Order 35 Task Force to probe the killing of activist Zara Alvarez to see if she was a victim of extra-judicial killing.
But he said before he would consider ordering the task force Task to probe her death, they would first have to find out if the circumstances surrounding her death fell within their mandate.
“We may consider her case for special investigation under AO 35 after some fact-checking,” Guevarra said.
The 39-year-old Alvarez was said to be the 13th human rights worker of the group Karapatan to be killed during the term of President Rodrigo Duterte.
She was killed around 8 p.m. on Aug. 17 in a private village in Bacolod City, police said.
Her death came a week after Anakpawis chairman and National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace consultant Randall Echanis died on Aug. 10 in Quezon City.
Karapatan said human rights activist Alvarez was shot dead on Monday night in Bacolod City.
Group Secretary-General Cristina Palabay said she was a former political prisoner who continued to work as a paralegal for Karapatan after her release. She was also a research and advocacy officer of the Negros Island Health Integrated Program.
Karapatan said Alvarez was gunned down along Santa Maria Street in Eroreco in Mandalagan village, Bacolod, around 6:45 p.m.
Police initially identified her as a certain Sarah Rebuton of Cadiz City, Negros Occidental, but Julius Dagatan, media liaison of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Negros, confirmed she was Alvarez.
Karapatan, in a statement, said they were in “deep grief and indignation.”
The AO 35 Task Force on EJK covers the creation of an inter-agency committee or IAC that includes the summary killings of people on account of their advocacies, but not common crimes involving ordinary people.
The IAC is led by Guevarra, and its members include the head of the Presidential Human Rights Committee, the Interior secretary, the Defense secretary, the Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs, the head of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the head of the Philippine National Police and the director of the National Bureau of Investigation.