An emotional Marieta Ocañada asks officers of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu City chapter to help her seek justice for her slain daughter, Amelie, a lawyer and her only child. “Bolinaw ra intawn ko… Ang among kontra iho (I’m just a small fish. We are up against a shark),” she said. CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO
Ambush of lawyer Amelie unsolved after 2 months
A cash reward is being offered by friends of slain lawyer Amelie Alegre to flush out information that could solve her murder.
Her 67-year-old mother Marieta Ocañada yesterday discussed this incentive as she asked Cebu lawyers to help speed up the investigation by the police and the National Bureau of Investigation.
“It’s been almost two months since she was killed. The 40-day period of mourning is over and we have not yet seen any accomplishments in the investigation,” said Ocañada, who wiped tears from her eyes.
She appealed for help in a meeting of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ (IBP) Cebu City chapter board meeting at the Casino Español de Cebu.
The mother mentioned a figure for a tipster’s reward but asked to keep off the record the exact amount donated by her daughter’s friends and clients.
Lawyer Hidelito Pascual Jr., president of the IBP Cebu City chapter, said the organization would “help evaluate whether or not would-be informants deserve the reward money.”
Ocañada, a widow, expressed dismay at the pace of the crime investigation of the the Mandaue City Police Office, saying she would rather coordinate with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 which is conducting a separate inquiry.
“Anyone in my position would understand what I feel. I’m so unhappy. I trust the police but I don’t know. It seems that they are busy with other things,” Ocañada told reporters.
Amelie was at the wheel of a BMW sedan driving two colleagues home from work in the early evening of Aug. 13, when two men on a motorbike drove by the car and fired shots at the driver’s side.
The roadside ambush took place in heavy traffic, but the assailants were able to speed off. Police later circulated sketches of one of the gunmen, and discovered through CCTV footage that several lookouts had been following the lawyer from her law office in Mandaue city.
An ongoing court annulment of Amelie’s marriage and related “death threats” that she had told her family and colleagues about produced the early theory that a personal conflict was behind the murder.
No arrests were made or charges filed.
The father of her estranged husband Ryan, a businessman, showed up at the Mandaue police station to deny that he had any hand in the lawyer’s death.
Amelie’s law firm partner Briccio Boholst survived the ambush with a gunshot injury in the leg.
The former IBP Cebu city president initially talked openly about threats to Amelie’s safety and who had the most likely “motive” to get Amelie out of the picture but cautioned that hard evidence was needed.
Boholst was in Manila yesterday and unable to attend the IBP meeting.
He told Cebu Daily News that Mandaue police, who announced last Monday that they already identified a possible “mastermind” of the murder without revealing a name, had several “angles” in mind but nothing concrete.
Last week, Cebu lawyers celebrated “Law Week” but still had no solid progress to announce in the murder investigation.
Yesterday, the victim’s mother appealed to the IBP to help her.
FIGHTING A SHARK
“Tabangi intawn ko, sir. Maluoy mo. Bolinaw ra intawn ko. Ang among kontra iho (Please help me, sir. Have pity on me. I’m just a small fish. We are up against a shark),” she said.
Senior Supt. Mariano Natu-el Jr., director of the Mandaue City Police Office, on Monday announced that they already identified the possible mastermind.
However, he refused to elaborate in order not to preempt the investigation.
Ocañada said she was never given updates by the Mandaue police.
Do the police and NBI have different suspects in mind?
The grieving mother said she would rely on the NBI and that all she could do now is pray and wait.
“Investigating crimes is their task. That’s their job,” she said in reference to the police and the NBI.
Alegre, a member of the IBP Cebu City chapter, was supposed to drop off Boholst at home after work on Aug. 13. Their car was ambushed in Catalino Ouano Street in barangay Looc.
Alegre died in the car while Boholst and an office accountant Antonio Pido who hitched a ride were wounded.
Interviewed about an hour after her daughter was gunned down in Mandaue City, Ocañada pointed to her son-in-law Ryan as the likely perpetrator.
She said she was privy to threats received by her daughter over the couple’s strained marital relations.
But when asked again yesterday about her suspicion, Ocañada chose to keep quiet.
STILL CRYING
She said the agony of losing her only daughter continues.
Ocañada, who shared the same condominium with Alegre after the latter separated from her husband years ago, said she could not sleep well at night.
“I keep on crying. It’s not easy to lose a daughter,” she said.
Amelie was her only child.
Ocañada, who worked as flight dispatcher of Philippine Airlines, said she would persevere until justice is served.
“I’ll never give up. I have to fight. I can’t do that if I’m weak,” she said.
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