Lawyer of Negros rob accused, escort killed in Cebu ambush

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines – The legal counsel of the alleged mastermind in  a daytime robbery of a pawnshop in this Negros Oriental city last year and one of his escorts were killed in an ambush in Dalaguete, Cebu on Tuesday, authorities said.

Lawyer Noel Archival and escort Candido Meñoza were killed while two other companions were seriously injured when their Toyota Hilux was peppered with bullets in Barangay Coro, Dalaguete town at around 2 p.m. Tuesday, according to the police.

Archival, brother of Cebu City councilor Nestor Archival, had just returned to Cebu from Dumaguete City where he attended a court hearing of his client, Jesuslou Elcarte Alegria, for a robbery-in-band case.

Alegria, 42, who hails from Pagadian City in Zamboanga del Sur, was arrested after he and several cohorts allegedly robbed the Agencia Belen Pawnshop in the downtown area here and carted away some P5 million worth of jewelry on Aug. 24 last year. 

The stolen items were recovered, but all the perpetrators, except for Alegria, managed to escape from pursuing law enforcers. 

Judge Cenon Repollo, presiding judge of Regional Trial Court Branch 38 here, said the hearing was supposed to continue yesterday, but it had to be cancelled as Archival was reportedly scheduled for a court appearance in Camiguin.

Superintendent James Goforth, Dumaguete police chief, said Archival had been to this city a number of times to represent Alegria and and a certain Mark Lorenz Solon, a suspected big-time drug pusher who was arrested last December.

However, for unknown reasons, Solon, who was in the police watch list of drug personalities, reportedly terminated Archival’s services, Goforth said.

Solon, 38, a son of a prominent businessman, and a certain Adams Guivelondo Cuevas, 50, were arrested in a buy-bust operation where they yielded some 30 grams of suspected shabu.

Also confiscated from Solon and Cuevas were a grenade, an improvised tooter, a pair of scissors, the marked money, the black Toyota Hilux Vigo 3.0 driven by Cuevas, and the Mitsubishi Monterro SUV of Solon.

Goforth said he believes the ambush-killing of Archival could be related to his job, considering that he was handling “high profile cases.” – Freeman News Service