A LAWYER handling high-profile cases survived an ambush a few meters away from the courts building in Cebu City on Monday, Sept. 2, 2019.
The ambush of Inocencio de la Cerna Jr. happened at past 9 a.m., the same time the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) opened Crime Prevention Week.
Driving a Toyota Land Cruiser, de la Cerna was leaving the Qimonda compound, where the Cebu City Hall of Justice is housed, at the North Reclamation Area at about 9:30 a.m. when a man walked towards the driver’s side and shot the front windshield and left window.
A man riding a motorcycle met the gunman for them to ride in tandem.
A policeman who was in the vicinity of Qimonda saw the shooting but the gunman saw him and shot at him. The policeman could not fire back as he was escorting an arrested person.
This is what a security guard, who asked not to be named for his safety, saw as he was nearby.
Lawyer’s account
This is what de la Cerna said in a brief interview with radio dyLA: When he saw the man firing at him, he ducked.
The bullets missed him, but shards of glass cut his left hand.
He continued driving southbound on Don Sergio Osmeña St., which is a long stretch, and saw the men riding in tandem were on his trail.
The gunman fired at him five more times, and each time the bullet missed the lawyer.
Upon reaching the corner of Alviola St., de la Cerna had to stop for the traffic lights.
He got his gun from his bag, got off the vehicle and fired back at his attackers.
“Ni stoplight naman gyud, so wala na koy mabuhat ani niya. It’s either them or me,” he said.
Seeing he had a gun, the attackers turned around and sped off.
De la Cerna was alone in the vehicle. His Land Cruiser had 11 gunshot marks—one on the front windshield on the driver’s side, four on the driver’s left windshield, five on the front and rear passengers’ windshields and one on the left rear.
He said his attackers were wearing full-face helmets, and he could not identify either of them.
Legal cases
Later in an interview with Superbalita Cebu, de la Cerna said he had not received death threats prior to the attack.
But he said the attempt on his life may be connected to any of the high-profile cases he’s handling.
He is representing an accused in a P3.2-billion estafa case involving shares of stock. The court had initially denied bail for the accused, but when he took over as his lawyer, the court granted bail.
He is also representing an accused in the parricide of Bien Unido mayor Gisela Bendong-Boniel, whose body has not been found.
In the trial, he had cross-examined the prosecutor’s main witness and had proven the witness to have lied. He later learned that the witness had gone to someone in the military and told the military person that the lawyer shamed or embarrassed him in public.
It could be any of the other cases he has handled or is handling that might have instigated the attempt on his life.
He had lawyered for politicians such as the Martinezes in Bogo City, the late Medellin mayor Ricardo Ramirez, the former senator and Toledo City mayor John Osmeña, former Bohol Provincial Board member Niño Rey Boniel and former Aloguinsan mayor Augustus Caesar Moreno.
He had also represented Leodegreco Sanchez, who had faced criminal cases in court for possession of unlicensed firearms and drug paraphernalia.
He had represented the Highway Patrol Group Central Visayas who faced cases of multiple murder and frustrated murder for their alleged involvement in the Feb. 18, 2014 fatal ambush of lawyer Noel Archival and two other men in Dalaguete, Cebu.
He was consultant of the Regional Special Operations Group (RSOG) 7 in 2016.
Not the first
De la Cerna, a 32-year veteran in the law profession, was the third high-profile public personality who was ambushed coming from the Cebu City Hall of Justice.
On Feb. 19, 2018, lawyer Jonah John Ungab, then the vice mayor of Ronda town in Cebu, was ambushed at noon and died in the hospital a few hours later. Ungab was the lawyer of accused drug lord Kerwin Espinosa.
On March 21, 2019, police captain Delfin Bontuyan, who had attended a hearing at Qimonda, was ambushed while stopping at an intersection near a mall for the lights to go green. Men riding in tandem shot him through his motorcycle helmet.
In September 2016, de la Cerna was counsel for police officers Rex Derilo and George Ylanan when they appeared before the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Camp Crame to submit themselves to investigation after they were named as drug protectors by self-confessed drug lord Franz Sabalones. Derilo and Ylanan were the former chiefs of the Regional Intelligence Division and Regional Special Operations Group of Police Regional Office 7.
IBP, Labella statements
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu condemned the attack.
“We hope that the government through the leadership of our President and also the police force will take actions necessary to ensure that the legal practitioners of this country are safe, because what we really uphold as a concept in the IBP is that rule of law must be upheld at all times,” IBP Cebu president Regal Oliva said.
“The IBP will have to hold trainings for lawyers to know what to do first when it comes to situations like these,” Oliva said.
At Cebu City Hall, Mayor Edgardo Labella said he will ask Cebu City Police Chief Col. Gemma Vinluan to deploy police near Qimonda to deter crime “considering that court rooms and cases are somewhat very adversarial.” AYB WITH PAC & ANV OF SUPERBALITA CEBU, CTL / MPS