IBP slams killing of Cebu-based lawyer

MANILA, Philippines — The authorities are looking into three persons of interest in the killing of Cebu-based lawyer and former state prosecutor Salvador Solima.

In a report by The Freeman on Tuesday morning, Cebu City Police Officer Director Royina Garma said that they are looking into three persons of interest in the attack on Solima and his wife, Verosse.

Garma also added that the police is also backtracking all the high-profile case handled by Solima.

Soliman and his wife were shot inside their house past 6:00 p.m. The wife remains in critical condition as of Tuesday morning, said The Freeman.

Before assuming private practice of law, Solima served as a government prosecutor until 1998.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, in a message to reporters, said that the Department of Justice stands ready to “assist the police in solving the case.”

The justice chief also said that Solima’s work as a state prosecutor may not have prompted the killing. “I don’t think the murder had anything to do with his duties when he was still a prosecutor 20 years ago.”

READ: Gunmen pretended as clients: Lawyer killed, wife wounded

IBP calls for end to killings

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Cebu Chapter, meanwhile, slammed the “vicious act” of killing of their colleague Solima.

“Solima was a respected prosecutor before he ventured into private practice and is known to be accommodating to his clients. He also was friendly to all new lawyers and helped them in Court like he did to me,” said IBP Cebu province chapter president Mundlyn Misal-Martin in a statement.

Martin also lamented that the act of killing has “almost” become the “new norm when it should not be.”

“When will this end? When will people understand that killing/hurting another lawyer is not the ‘real justice’ they think they deserve,” the IBP provincial head added.

Since October 2016, there have been more than 10 members of the bar attacked by unidentified gunmen. Lives of active and retired prosecutors and private lawyers were claimed through attacks by unidentified people.

Last month, Ombudsman Assistant Special Prosecutor Madonna Joy Tanyag was stabbed to death in a case believed to be a robbery. Her killing came weeks after Ozamiz City Prosecutor Geronimo Marabe Jr. was shot dead by four identified men in Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental.

The lawyer of confessed drug dealer Kerwin Espinosa, Jan Ungab, was killed in an ambush, also in Cebu City, last February.

READ: Kerwin Espinosa's lawyer shot dead in Cebu

Martin added: “Justice cannot be attained by an injustice. Killing of a lawyer, or any other person, is unjustifiable and will never be a solution/resolution to misery! This is not supposed to happen in this generation.” 

The IBP, in February, formed a task force to investigate the killings of members of the bar.

IBP National President Abdiel Dan Fajardo created a five-member panel to “to investigate, document, prosecute or assist in the prosecution of cases involving the murder or violent assault against the members of the Bar and/or their families.” — Kristine Joy Patag with reports from The Freeman