Bulacan lawyer gunned down

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga, Philippines – Six armed men shot dead a prominent lawyer in his office in San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan Wednesday, police said.

In a report, Senior Superintendent Fernando Mendez, Bulacan police director, said lawyer Cornelio Cruz, 55, an active member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Gat Marcelo H. del Pilar (Bulacan) chapter, was in his office in Barangay Sampol when the ski mask-wearing men barged in and shot him successively with an M-16 rifle and short firearms. The gunmen escaped onboard a motorcycle and a van.

Police said the killing could be work-related as Cruz was handling some controversial cases.