A San Francisco native living and working in the Philippines as an advocate for indigenous people and environmental protection is fighting for his life after being shot in what relatives and colleagues believe was a political attack by government forces to silence him.

Brandon Lee, 37, was shot outside his home Tuesday in the Ifugao province of the northern Philippines, according to friends and family who are calling on San Francisco’s congressional delegation to order the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines to offer Lee protection and conduct an investigation into the shooting.

“Let’s be clear: By all appearances a foreign power has attempted to assassinate a U.S. citizen for advocating human rights,” said San Francisco Supervisor Gordon Mar, who held a rally Friday on the City Hall steps.

The Philippine consulate did not respond to requests for comment.

The crowd of several dozen included Lee’s relatives, some of whom declined to be photographed or identified by name for fear of harassment from the Philippine government. They described Lee as a Chinese kid who grew up in the Sunset District playing with Legos and Dragonball Z cards and idolizing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Lee later worked with kids at a Stonestown YMCA camp and attended Lincoln High School and San Francisco State University, where he matured into an activist.

Lita Lee, an aunt, was not surprised by her nephew’s concern for human rights in the Philippines, but she was shocked by his decision to move there.

“When Brandon left for the Philippines 10 years ago, I felt numb and a bit angry,” she said. “People come here to live a better life; why would he go somewhere that was not known for good job opportunities?”

She used to mail him pictures of San Francisco, mixing landmarks like Fisherman’s Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge with shots from the Sunset neighborhood: a typical house, a coffee shop or a playground. Lita Lee said she was “hoping that he would feel homesick and come back to this beautiful city.”

But he stayed in the Philippines, fell in love and had a daughter, who is now 7. Even being labeled an “enemy of the state” and continually surveilled, harassed and threatened failed to drive Lee home, family and friends said.

“Even though his own life was in danger, it didn’t make a difference,” said Carlo Montemayor, a friend since childhood.

Information from the Philippines has been sparse, but Brandon Lee was apparently shot four times — three times in the back and once in the face — outside his home while feeding the family dogs, friends said. He survived the shooting but suffered multiple cardiac arrests during surgery to remove the bullets. He is being treated in a hospital in an undisclosed location to protect him from his assailants, said Raquel Redondiez, a friend.

She said there have been reports of unknown men asking around the hospital about Lee.

“The family is worried that the men who shot him in the back are still around, wanting to make sure they were successful,” Redondiez said.

Several of Brandon Lee’s friends, many of them former San Francisco State classmates, have been gathering nightly to share news and comfort each other, said Faye Lacanilao, who met him in college.

Lee has been a paralegal for the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance, and he also worked on protecting the land and rights of indigenous people. He’s been an activist in the Philippines since 2010, Lacanilao said, and he remained there despite being threatened and singled out by the government in 2015 for his political activism.

Wright said Asian American leaders hope to persuade the U.S. Embassy to provide protection for him. So far, though, the embassy has “shown a lack of concern and power,” Lacanilao said. She hopes that pressure from Congress will change that.

Adam Russell, a spokesman for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, said the senator’s office “has been in touch with the family and is working on the case” but couldn’t comment further because of privacy concerns. Calls and emails to Sen. Kamala Harris’ and Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s offices were not immediately returned.

Lacanilao said she befriended Brandon Lee in Asian American studies classes and was impressed by his knowledge and passion as they bonded not only over global issues but also “our love of the Backstreet Boys and ’90s culture. We still laugh about that whenever we talk.”

She said she hopes he will pull through, so they can talk again.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan