Lawyer hammered dead in his house

ILOILO CITY, Philippines  — A 52-year-old lawyer was found dead by his own mother inside his house at Brgy. San Pedro in Jaro district of this city at around 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Seventy-year-old Trinidad Villalobos, a resident of Monte Rosa Subdivision in Mandurriao district, also in this city, was supposed to pay her usual visit to her son, lawyer Arsenio Villalobos, that day.

Shortly after gaining entrance, the mother was shocked to see Arsenio's body bathed in his own pool of blood at the kitchen, while holding a hammer carefully placed on his chest and tucking a kitchen knife.

Chief Insp. Hilarion Roga, head of the Police Regional Office-6's scene-of-the-crime operations (SOCO) team, said the victim was apparently struck with a hard object on the left portion of his head and on the left eye. That blunt object could be a hammer, he surmised.

There were also latent prints of a slipper on the refrigerator, but Roga said it apparently came from the victim's slipper as he might have kicked the refrigerator.

Authorities believed that Arsenio was killed between 3 pm and 5 pm, however not one of his neighbors living just a meter away from the victim's house claimed to hear any unusual noise during those hours.

The victim has been living with his uncle, 68-year-old Ramon Ocampo whose whereabouts could not be ascertained also as of presstime. "He might be able to shed light into the matter," said Sr. Insp. Joseph Euje Almaquer, chief of the Jaro Police Station.

Arsenio's estranged wife is the sister of City Vice Mayor Jose Espinosa III, and is now living at Brgy. Monica in the City Proper.

A father of two, Arsenio was a former prosecutor assigned at the Ramon Avanceña Hall of Justice. (FREEMAN)