On 4 November 2020, Vincent Adia, 27, was reportedly shot twice by a gunman inside the Rizal Provincial Hospital’s Angono Annex where he was being treated for gunshot wounds. Earlier that day, at around 4:00 AM, he was allegedly shot thrice and left to die by the gutter with a cardboard that labeled him a “pusher.” Adia was then brought to the aforementioned hospital where the medical workers revived and stabilized him but he was killed in front of them a few hours later.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) strongly condemns this brutal killing inside a hospital. The brazenness of the attack is utterly reprehensible—a desecration of the very facility where the sick and wounded are supposed to be treated and saved. Amid the suffering in this period of pandemic, it is disheartening that extra-judicial killings still persist.

We harp again our repeated plea to the government to concretely address the continuing atrocities and vigilante killings. With the government’s recent expression of openness to cooperate with international mechanisms in improving the human rights situation in the country, we hope and expect that cases of extrajudicial killings will be truly curbed and tackled with utmost urgency.

For our part, the CHR Region-IV has dispatched a quick response team to investigate the case and monitor it to its just end. ###