Cebu City Council asks law enforcement agencies to solve lawyer’s ambush “swiftly”

The Cebu City Hall. CDN Digital photo | Brian J. Ochoa

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Council requested all concerned law enforcement agencies to act “swiftly and decisively” in investigating the ambush of Atty. Karen Quiñanola-Gonzales and her son, as the council strongly condemned this recent attack to a member of the legal profession.

Cebu City Vice Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia, also a lawyer, authored the resolution, carried by the council during its regular session on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022.

Quiñanola-Gonzales, a Cebu Port Authority lawyer, and her 19-year-old son, Jeremy Gonzales, were ambushed by motorcycle-riding gunmen in Mandaue City last Sept. 1, 2022.

Garcia said these attacks “spread terror” and instill fear in lawyers who are merely performing their duties.

Garcia, quoting some provisions of the United Nations Basic Principles, which stipulated the role of lawyers, said governments should ensure that lawyers are able to perform all of their professional functions “without intimidation, hindrance, harassment, or improper interference.”

“In order for our justice system to continue to function, lawyers should be able to exercise their profession and all duties that come with it free from threats of violence and lawlessness,” reads Garcia’s resolution.

Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation Cebu District Office (NBI CEBDO) will conduct a parallel investigation with police authorities in the ambush of Quiñanola-Gonzales.

READ: NBI to conduct parallel probe in ambush of lawyer, son in Mandaue

Quiñanola-Gonzales’ son had already been discharged from the hospital while she was still recovering in a hospital.

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