NBI-7 to help probe killing of lawyer in Cebu City

A police line is set up around the car where Lawyer Rex Fernandez was killed by a lone gunman in street in Banawa, Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City on August 26. | Paul Lauro

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) will help investigate the killing of Lawyer Rex Jesus Fernandez on August 26.

Lawyer Renan Oliva, NBI-7 director, said they were willing to help in the investigation and cited the importance of the help of survivors in the possible solution of the case.

“We will be talking sa mga survivors. We learned nga dunay survivor nga passenger ug driver. If you remember the case the ambush killing of Attorney Archival (the survivor) proved vital in the solution of the case. I hope and pray nga ang mga survivor diha makatabang sa investigation,” Oliva said.

(We will be talking to the survivors. We learned that there was wa survivor – a passenger and the driver. If you remember the case the ambush killing [in 2014] of Attorney [Noel] Archival [the survivor] proved vital in the solution of the case. I hope and pray that the survivors here can help in the investigation.)

Oliva said that initially there were two survivors in the ambush incident — one is the driver who was injured and currently in stable condition and reportedly a woman passenger who was left unharmed.

Oliva said that they did not receive the formal request from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu City Chapter to conduct investigation but he was called by Lawyer Regal Oliva, the president of IBP Cebu City Chapter, yesterday (August 26), who asked for assistance from them. 

For now, Oliva said that they would be checking the cases handled by Fernandez, his engagements in his social media to gather evidence.

Whatever they could gather, Oliva said that they would share it with other law enforcement agencies that were also conducting investigation on the killing.

On Thursday, Lawyer Rex Fernandez, a Cebuano lawyer who became controversial after holding a hunger strike since August 13, was ambushed along Duterte Street, Banawa, Barangay Guadalupe in Cebu City.

Fernandez was inside his car when a lone gunman on foot shot him several times and then the gunman fled with a waiting companion on a motorcycle.

Fernandez died of his wounds at past 4 p.m. of August 26.

READ: Cebuano controversial lawyer killed in daring daylight ambush