IBP silent on ‘personal matter’, but lawyers abuzz

“LET the law take its own course.”

This was the comment of Gonzalo Malig-on Jr.,  newly elected president of the IBP Cebu chapter,  who refrained from saying much about the recent commotion  involving two of their members.

The wife of lawyer Jonah  John Ungab attacked his  former law firm associate  Jiecel Tiu with a baseball bat in a fit of jealousy last Thursday, leading to the filing of charges of frustrated murder by the injured  lady lawyer.

Malig-on said it wouldn’t be proper for the bar association to intervene in the pending case.

“That’s something personal.  I think it would be prudent on our part not to take a stand because a case was already filed with  the prosecutors’ office,” he told reporters yesterday.

“So we will just let the fiscal do her job so as not to preempt the investigation. It’s difficult to comment on what’s proper and not in  this particular case. Although Attorney  Ungab is also a public official, there’s already a case filed regarding the issue,” he added.

Malig-on said he has yet to talk to Ungab, who is also the vice mayor of the municipality of Ronda, southwest Cebu.

Ungab and Tiu were not around at yesterday’s IBP elections but the controversy  was the talk of the lawyers  and  overshadowed other  issues affecting the legal community.

Ungab’s 41-year-old wife Pearl was arrested Thursday after she rammed her pickup truck into Tiu’s car, and smashed the car window with a baseball bat before a Citom enforcer arrived to stop the disturbance.

In an interview last Friday, Tiu, 30  firmly denied having an affair  with the vice mayor, who she worked with in the law firm  Ungab, Gealon and Associates for four years before she voluntarily left to appease Ungab’s wife, Pearl.

Tiu  was  on board her Toyota Vios sedan in the parking lot of Centro Maximo last Thursday when the vice mayor’s wife  arrived and  confronted her.   A car chase followed.

Tiu sustained bruises on her left shoulder and a wound behind her left ear after the furious wife bashed the car window with a baseball bat,  unlocked the door and took a swing at her.

A street sweeper who saw  the confrontation on Echavez Extension was presented as a witness during the inquest.  The police submitted a 30-inch aluminum baseball bat as evidence.

Hospital arrest for upset wife

PEARL  Ungab, the angry 41-year-old  wife who went after a female lawyer with a baseball bat   after suspecting an illicit affair was going on with her husband,  was still under “hospital arrest” yesterday in the Vicente Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City.

A policeman stood guard  outside the door of her private room   when Cebu Daily News visited in the afternoon.  Her nephew, Jed, said the family was not ready to issue a public statement  but would release one at the right time.

Meanwhile her husband, lawyer Jonah John Ungab, told CDN in an online message that he was still  looking for a lawyer to represent his spouse. He begged off from making any comments for now.

Pearl  was arrested on Thursday afternoon after the incident but was  brought to the hospital after she complained of  “spotting” due to her seven-week pregnancy.

Prosecutor Liceria Lofranco-Rabillas went  to her hospital room  Friday afternoon to hear her side as part of an   inquest proceeding after a complaint for frustrated murder was filed by the victim, lawyer Jiecel Tiu.

The wife waived  a preliminary investigation.  Prosecutor  Rabillas said she would resolve the case and decide this week  whether to  file criminal  charges in court.