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Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Maxey: Yes, they kill lawyers, too
By Ram Maxey
Bar None
"Hopefully, to the satisfaction of IBP members, in time the mastermind and the killers will be known, charged with the crime, convicted and punished accordingly."
"SO, THEY'RE killing lawyers now."
That was the opening line of Tuesday's editorial in a local newspaper (not Sun Star Davao). It was referring to the recent killing of lawyer Reuel Dalguntas and his driver by motorcycle-riding gunmen while the victims were on their way from Panabo City to Davao City.
It is but natural for members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) to react strongly to the murder of one of their colleagues. But it's not as if Dalguntas was the first lawyer ever to lose his life at the hands of assassins. Nor the last. A cold-blooded and determined assassin will do his thing, regardless of his victim's station in life.
One famous man in history died from an assassin's bullet. His name was Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America. He was a lawyer.
Other people, professionals or non-professionals, also get murdered every now and then, whether they're doctors, engineers, teachers, accountants, nurses, soldiers, policemen, carpenters, janitors, drivers, farmers, beauticians, artists, housemaids, waiters, etcetera.
We in media know all too well the risks we are heir to, but we plod on regardless. There were more Filipino journalists gunned down since the fall of the Marcos dictatorship than those in other professions, except soldiers and policemen.
I remember when I was a newspaperman in General Santos City in the 1960s at the height of the dreaded Octopus Gang, a certain Judge Valdez was kneeling at the communion rail of a church in Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat, when an assassin approached him from behind and calmly put a bullet in his head in full view of the priest and churchgoers. The killer just as calmly walked out. You see, they kill judges, too.
Who killed Dalguntas and his driver? Better yet, who was behind the murders? Who knows? Hopefully, to the satisfaction of IBP members, in time the mastermind and the killers will be known, charged with the crime, convicted and punished accordingly.
By the very nature of their profession, lawyers and judges may at one time or another incur the ire of people involved in the cases the lawyers/judges are handling. In this nation of hotheads, that can be an invitation to murder.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here.
(February 9, 2005 issue)
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