Task force to go after Cagayan lawyer’s killers

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines – A task force composed of experts from various police units has been formed to fast-track the investigation into last week’s killing of a trial lawyer here with the work-related angle being looked into as a possible motive behind the slay.

Senior Inspector Ruben Verbo, officer-in-charge of the city police, said the task force will focus on unmasking the gunmen and brains behind the killing of lawyer Isagani Garcia.

Garcia, 35, was shot dead by motorcycle-riding men while on board his car along the provincial road in Barangay San Gabriel here on the night of May 14. Reports said he sustained at least 10 bullet wounds.

Garcia, also a law professor at the Cagayan State University, had just attended his class when his assailants overtook his car and fired at him.

Initial police pronouncements indicated that the killing could be work related.

As of yesterday though, Verbo said they have yet to obtain the closed-circuit television footage of the assault from establishments near the crime scene. 

A security guard detailed near the crime scene said he saw one of two persons alighting from a motorcycle and shooting Garcia in his car. Police said 17 .45-caliber empty shells were recovered from the scene.

Investigators said Garcia attempted to shoot back, as his fully loaded .45-caliber pistol was found beside his body.

Investigators have reportedly found it hard to conduct ballistic test at the crime scene after the victim’s brother, lawyer Nicanor Garcia of the Public Attorney’s Office, reportedly refused to submit his brother’s body to an autopsy.

Garcia’s killing came in the wake of the filing of graft charges against Tuguegarao Mayor Jefferson Soriano before the Office of the Ombudsman, wherein Garcia was the legal counsel of the complainant, Councilor Maila Ting Que.

Que is a daughter of former mayor Delfin Ting, who Soriano defeated in last year’s elections, ending the Tings’ political dominance over the city’s top post for more than two decades.

Garcia was also reportedly handling poll-related cases in Isabela, his home province, at the time of his killing.

Earlier, Soriano, a former police general, denied any involvement in the killing, saying those dragging his name in the “barbaric” incident were merely speculating by trying to link the incident to the two graft cases filed against him.

“I did not even know that (Garcia) was the legal counsel of the graft cases against me. I have nothing to do with his deplorable killing. I call on my former colleagues in the Philippine National Police for the arrest of those behind (it),” said Soriano, also a lawyer.  – Charlie Lagasca, Raymund Catindig