CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The local chapters of the Integrated Bar of the Philippine (IBP) have condemned the killing of Regional Trial Court Judge Edmundo Pintac, who was gunned down near his home in Ozamiz City on Monday.
“This senseless killing in broad daylight is an attack upon the “rule of law” which is supposed to be a restriction of the arbitrary exercise of power by subordinating it to well-defined and established laws. Corollarily, it is an attack upon our profession,” IBP Misamis Occidental and Western Mindanao chapters said in a joint statement released Tuesday.
The lawyers’ group called on the police “to run after the killers and bring them to justice the soonest possible time,.”
Meanwhile, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) also denounced Pintac assassination, describing it as “attacks against the independence of the judiciary and the whole justice system.”
“These killings have a chilling effect on members of the judiciary in the discharge of their functions. The existence of attacks and threats to legal professionals in a country with already outrageous levels of impunity weakens the very basis of democracy,” NUPL said in a statement also issued on Tuesday.
In a separate statement she issued Monday evening, Chief Justice Teresita De Castro called on law enforcement agencies to hunt down and apprehend the suspects.
Jacqueline de Guia, Commission on Human Rights spokesperson, said they will also conduct an investigation into the killing of Pintac.
Chief Inspector Marlo Mesias, chief of Misamis Occidental police’s investigation unit, said investigators are now looking into possible motives of Pintac’s killing, including the “sensational cases” that he was handling prior to this death.
Among the cases Pintac handled include the drug and firearms cases against Ozamiz Vice Mayor Nova Princess Parojinog and her brother, Reynaldo Jr., before these cases were transferred to a Quezon City court earlier this year.
The Parojinog siblings were arrested last year following the series of raids conducted against the family that led to the death of their father, former Ozamiz mayor Reynaldo Sr., his wife Susan, and others.
According to reports, Pintac denied the Parojinog siblings’ petition to attend the wake of their parents and relatives who were killed in the July 2017 raid.
Quoting the initial finding of the forensics team, Mesias said investigators recovered four used cartridges, two pieces slugs, and a misfired bullet.
A .45 caliber handgun was used by the four assailants on board two motorcycles. Police said they were unable to find any weapon inside Pintac’s vehicle.
Earlier, Senior Superintendent Emmanuel Hebron, Misamis Occidental police provincial director, said Pintac didn’t notify authorities of any threat on his life.
Hebron said Pintac was assigned a police officer as his security escort but the latter was not with Pintac during the shooting. (Jigger Jerusalem/PNA)
