On the 25th of October, in Paradijon Village in Sorsogon, Edwin Pura a 49 year old man was shot dead by two men who were suspected to be state security forces. Pura had noticed the two men tailing him and tried to shake them off by entering the Angie Resto Bar. The suspects followed him inside the bar and shot him.

Edwin Pura was the paralegal staff of human rights lawyer, Ron Elv Espinosa, who is the second vice president for Luzon of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL). Pura was also a former leader of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) and a transport leader.

In a statement, NUPL said the killing of Pura is also an attack against lawyer Espinosa, for whom Pura has been working  for a year. NUPL said that in August, Espinosa was targeted by an armed man who went to his law office in Sorsogon city, but backed out when he saw other people, including journalists, at Espinosa’s office.

“NUPL believes that the failed attempt to take Espinosa’s life and the killing of Pura is part of the state’s systematic pattern of harassment against its dissenters,” said NUPL secretary general Ephraim Cortez.

Pura is the latest victim in a series of extrajudicial killings in Sorsogon. In a related development, human rights group KARAPATAN blamed the Duterte Administration for its policies that led to the brutal killing of Edwin Pura.“Duterte’s policy on waging war against all forms of dissent under the Duterte administration must be blamed for the series of attacks on progressive groups in the province,” said KARAPATAN-Sorsogon.