EDITORIAL - Killing the defense

Notorious drug dealers get little sympathy in this country. There were remarkably muted protests when police killed Ozamiz Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr., his wife and two siblings plus 11 others in drug raids on their homes in July last year. A nephew died later from gunshot wounds. President Duterte had tagged the mayor as a narco politician.

In November 2016, there were loud protests when Rolando Espinosa was shot dead under suspicious circumstances in a pre-dawn police raid in November 2016 on his cell in the Baybay City sub-provincial jail. The mayor of Albuera town in Leyte was also described as a narco politician by the President. But the protests died down even as Espinosa’s son Kerwin was arrested for drug deals and gun offenses.

Even those accused of serious crimes, however, are entitled to legal counsel. And it undermines an already weak justice system when those legal counsels are murdered.  

Lawyers’ groups are condemning the killing of Jonah John Ungab last Monday. Ungab, the vice mayor of Ronda town in Cebu, was also the lawyer of Kerwin Espinosa. The lawyer had just attended a court hearing for Espinosa and was driving his car when two men approached the vehicle and shot him in Cebu.

Ungab is not the first legal professional to be murdered in this country. Private lawyers, prosecutors and even judges have been killed in what police believe were work-related attacks. Having been a vice mayor, Ungab’s murder could also be politically motivated. But the only way to find out, obviously, is to catch his assassins and secure their conviction.

As in attacks on journalists, environmental advocates and left-leaning activists, legal professionals continue to be targeted for murder because the perpetrators are rarely caught. This weakness in law enforcement extends to political killings, which has entrenched assassination as a favorite tool for eliminating rivals during elections.

The murder of defense lawyers can scare away legal professionals from controversial cases. This can further slow down litigation and aggravate suffering especially of those who have been wrongly accused or framed. Only the capture and punishment of murderers can stop impunity. Ungab might not have been popular with the current administration, but his killers must be found and brought to justice.