The 20-year old student activist leader and 4th year journalism student was shot dead by unidentified assailants at the height of his campaign to mobilize more students and youths to protest repression.

His brothers and sisters in APO also joined the funeral march and demonstrated in protest actions in Manila, Bicol, Zamboanga, Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon to demand justice for him.

Mass actions were held nationwide last Friday to dramatize the death of camopus democracy and the freedom of expression.

Several hundreds of youth and students from the League of Filipino Students, the Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity and Sorority, Tanggulan Youth Network in Defense of Civil Liberties, National Union of Students of the Philippines, College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines, Anakbayan, KARATULA and Kabataan Party participated in the protests.

All of these groups also organized the "Justice for Cris! Justice for All! Campaign," or J4C, a youth movement demanding justice for Hugo and all victims of political persecution and extra-judicial killings believed to have been perpetrated by the Arroyo government.

"We will see this campaign through until justice is served. We cannot allow another incident like this to happen to many other Cris Hugos. Our clamor for justice is the youth’s cry for the immediate ouster of a fascist and tyrannical president who does not even so much as bat an eyelash before cold-bloodedly killing an innocent youth, the hope of the nation," said Eleanor de Guzman, Anakbayan national chairperson. Hugo was gunned down by suspected elements of the military last March 19.

He was the newly-elected Grand Chancellor of the APO chapter in Bicol University and a National Council member and regional coordinator of the LFS, a youth group that hews closely to the APO attributes of leadership, friendship and service.