Members of the Cebu City Police Office SWAT team arrive in full battle gear as they responded to the shooting of lawyer Jonnah John Ungab along S. Osmeña Road, Cebu City on Feb. 19, 2018. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
ELEVEN lawyers in Cebu had been killed since 2004.
Aside from lawyer Salvador Solima, also killed this year was lawyer and Ronda Vice Mayor John Ungab who was gunned down by an unknown assailant outside the Cebu City Hall of Justice last February 19.
In December 2016, lawyers Goering George Paderanga, Sr. and Gerik Caesare Paderanga were shot dead by a security guard following a disagreement on the use of a narrow road on F. Ramos Street in Barangay Sta. Cruz, Cebu City, on December 22, 2016.
The security guard was arrested and was facing double murder charges in court.
In August 2015, lawyer Amelie Alegre and her law associate, Briccio Joseph Boholst, were shot by two unidentified men on board a motorcycle while inside the car of Boholst in Mandaue City.
Alegre died on the spot due to multiple gunshot wounds on the body.
Boholst was hit in the left leg while their accountant Antonio Pino was hit in the stomach. Boholst and Pino survived. The perpetrators had not been identified to date.
In February 2015, lawyer Noel Archival was ambushed along with his three companions in Dalaguete town in southern Cebu.
At least three officers of the Highway Patrol Group were charged in court, but they remained at large.
In 2013, lawyer Jubian Achas was killed by a disgruntled litigant in one of the courtrooms at the Cebu Palace of Justice along with his client Dr. Rene Rafols.
The attack carried out by a Canadian expat John Pope who also seriously injured assistant prosecutor Maria Theresa Calibugan-Casiño.
In 2010, former Regional State Prosecutor Hernando Masangkay was killed inside his residence in Talisay City.
Charges were filed against a 17-year-old boy who was accused of killing Masangkay.
In 2009, public prosecutor Patrick Ian Osorio was killed in an ambush in Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City.
The two perpetrators were convicted by the trial court.
In 2008, lawyer Richard William Sison was shot dead around noon in Cebu City.
Nemuel Sumabong, a security guard, was convicted in 2012.
Also in that grim list of lawyers claimed by a hail of bullets was female lawyer Arbet Sta. Ana-Yongco who was shot inside her residence in Cebu City in 2004.
Yongco prosecuted the parricide case of cult leader Ruben Ecleo who was accused of killing his wife Alona Bacolod-Ecleo.
The alleged assassin, Michael Favila, a member of Ecleo’s cult, was arrested but he died from complications to diabetes in 2009.
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