Kerwin Espinosa’s lawyer killed in Cebu ambush

CEBU CITY — The legal counsel of self-confessed drug lord Rolando “Kerwin” Espinosa Jr. was ambushed just across the Cebu City courthouse right after the promulgation of his high-profile client at the Regional Trial Court shortly before noon Monday.

Lawyer Jonnah John Ungab sustained a gunshot wound in the head near his left ear and was rushed to the nearest Chong Hua Hospital in Mandaue City where he died a couple of hours later.

Homicide investigator SPO1 Winston Ybañez said attending physician Jaime Ramos declared Ungab dead at 2 p.m.

Ungab, who is also the municipal vice mayor of Ronda, Cebu, was leaving the courthouse driving his Suzuki Kizashi car along Sergio Osmeña Street in the North Reclamation Area around 11:50 a.m. when unidentified gunmen reportedly shot him and his wife Pearl, who escaped the ambush unscathed.

“He was already unconscious when we arrived at the scene,” said Ybañez, who added that although Ungab sustained only one bullet wound, it proved to be fatal.

Police investigators, who recovered two empty shells of a .45-caliber pistol, have yet to determine the motive of the killing and the identities of possibly two gunmen. (PNA)

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