Karapatan Central Visayas yesterday said it supports the call of lawyer Rodrigo Icao, past president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Negros Oriental, to relieve the heads of  the police forces in Negros Oriental and  Dumaguete City, after another murder in the city last week.

A Karapatan press statement said the call is just and appropriate in the wake of the brazen execution of Archer Martinez, inside his own office on Aug. 5.

It is an appropriate response to the dastardly crimes committed right under the noses of the police in a populated center.  It is a just recourse to the failures of lawmen to clip the lengthening list of summary executions in the city, the statement added.

In fact, Martinez, incumbent vice president of the IBP-Negros Oriental, is the third lawyer killed in the province in the last two years, Karapatan noted.

It echoes in other cases of summary execution in the province that are still crying out for resolution, like the killings of lawyer Ramon Barrameda, agrarian lawyer Eliezer Casipong, former city treasurer of Dumaguete Erlinda Tumongha, a doctor, and a beauty titlist, among others, the Karapatan press statement also said.*

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