Lawyer for Lim draws flak from netizens

Road rage suspect David Lim Jr. is being fingerprinted at the Regional Special Operation Group based in Camp Sergio Osmeña after his surrender early on Tuesday, March 21, 2017. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

Many netizens are not happy with the defense lawyer of road rage suspect David Lim Jr.

Lawyer Orlando Salatandre Jr. is famously known as the legal counsel of cult leader Ruben Ecleo, a former congressman who was convicted of parricide in 2012 by a Cebu court for the 2002 killing of his wife but who is now nowhere to be found after he was granted bail to seek medical treatment in 2004; and of former Quezon City Rep. Dennis Roldan, an actor-turned-politician who was convicted in 2014 for the kidnap-for-ransom case in Pasig City in 2005.

This time, as Lim’s legal counsel, Salatandre was criticized by netizens after he claimed that Lim only acted in self defense when he repeatedly shot and wounded nurse Ephraim Nuñal following a traffic altercation along F. Sotto Street in Barangay Kamputhaw, Cebu City at dawn last Sunday, March 19.

Salatandre, also a supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte in the last elections, then demanded from the motorist who took the video to present the whole footage as he claimed that Lim was allegedly confronted by Nuñal and his two companions that led to a brawl, which, he said, prompted his client to get the gun from his car and shot Nuñal.

Netizens’ reactions were swift, posting their angry remarks after Salatandre’s statement was posted on Cebu Daily News’ website and Facebook page.

Facebook user Kirby Llamera commented: “Yabag na ning balitaa self defense daw hahaha klaro ana wala unta ka ning tago dong after atong nahitabo nga self defense ra … og ang video dili pud mamakak.. basta kwartahan pwede balihon ang mga pang hitabo.. tsk tsk tsk.”

(This news is crazy. Self defense? You would not hide if it were self defense. The video did not lie. If you are rich, you can just reverse what actually happened.)

Another netizen, Ty Chito Campo, said, “Here comes the Zarzuela…. lawyers will make the dead rise again. The fact that Lim has all the opportunity to end the conflict by going back to his car yet he returned to the victim with a gun and shot him. Money money money. EJK works best.”

For Marie Ace Go, it was “Self defense my ass.. Try another lie atty one that can’t be disprove by the video and those who saw the whole thing at the scene of the crime.”

Raul Tabelon said, “Amazing how he can make such a claim with a straight face. Such a joke.”

Return after 2012

Salatandre, reached by phone last night, shrugged off the bashing on Facebook and instead focused on explaining his relationship with the Duterte camp.

He said he did not personally know Mr. Duterte but supported the latter because they are both from Mindanao. He said he became a PDP-Laban coordinator for Zamboanga del Norte, his home province, and Misamis Occidental in March 2016 because of Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.

He said he only met Mr. Duterte once in a rally prior to the May 2016 elections.

Salatandre also said he has not been back to Cebu on official business since Ecleo was convicted in 2012.

“ This (David Jr. case) is my first official business in Cebu since the Ecleo case,” he said in an interview yesterday.

Last Sunday, Salatandre said he was called by the Lim family in Cebu to ask him to defend David Jr.

“So I arrived back here last Monday morning and then conducted an ocular inspection at the place where the incident happened,” he said.

He appealed to the public not to judge his client.

“Who are we to judge a person? He’s presumed innocent until proven guilty,” Salatandre said.