THERE are not enough words to condemn the daylight killing of lawyer Jonnah John Ungab on Monday. Our sincere condolence to John’s bereaved family. John, may you rest in eternal peace with our Creator.
Atty. Ungab, the vice mayor Ronda, was shot after attending the promulgation of self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa, who was convicted for violating the election gun ban in 2010. While this case is not related to Kerwin’s illegal drug trade, the killers were sending a chilling message to criminal lawyers not to defend those facing illegal drugs cases.
It’s axiomatic that Atty. Rogelio Bato Jr., the lawyer of Kerwin’s father, former Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa, was also killed in a daylight ambush sometime in August 2016 in Tacloban City.
It’s a travesty of justice to kill lawyers, who defend persons facing drug charges. The lawyers are part and parcel of the criminal justice system. Without the lawyers, courts cannot function and cases will pile up while the accused stays in jail longer than the penalty they are charged with.
As former president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu Chapter, we appreciate fellow lawyers, who accept and handle drugs cases as they help move the wheels of justice.
Lawyers at the Public Attorney’s Office only assist those accused of drug pushing or possession and who cannot afford the services of private lawyers.
Law enforcement agencies should distinguish the practice of the law profession from drug protection. A lawyer defending a person facing drug charges doesn’t make him a drug protector or coddler. As lawyers, we are bound by our oath “to delay no man for money or malice.”
Granting for the sake of argument that Atty. Ungab committed a crime or an unethical practice of the law profession, but for what I know he had not, charging him before the bar of law was the appropriate thing to do in this democratic republic.
Has the law professional become the enemy of the state for defending the rights of those facing drug charges? I only wish that this is still farther from the truth.
Investigators are still facing a blank wall as to who ordered the killing of Atty. Ungab and what was the motive. But police are eying three angles. One is politics because he allegedly planned to run for mayor in his hometown. Two, work-related but not limited to the case of Espinosa. And three, personal.
I would venture to say that the death of Atty. Ungab is work-related. But it would be utterly unthinkable to suspect that one of his clients did it when a lawyer always does his best to defend or prosecute a client’s case.
Be that as it may, we hope investigators solve the case soon and charge those responsible for his death.
On a more serious tone, is the law practice now an endangered profession?
Last Feb. 13, Atty. Argel Joseph Cabatbat was ambushed by men riding in tandem but he survived and instead killed one of his would be killers, PO1 Mark Ayeras, who had been declared absent without leave (Awol).
Consider the case of Awol PO1 Ayeras as an isolated one, but this is another black mark to the image of the PNP, especially that the police organization is hounded by the issue of extra-judicial killings in the war against illegal drugs.
Let’s not forget the case of Atty. Noel Archival, who was ambushed and killed on his way home from a court appointment in Dumaguete City. The suspects are policemen from the Highway Patrol Group, who escaped while detained at Camp Crame.