Tagudin, Ilocos judge killed in La Union

MANILA, Philippines — Tagudin, Ilocos Sur Judge Mario Anacleto Bañez was shot to his death by unidentified men late afternoon Tuesday.

Court Administrator Midas Marquez, citing a police report, said that Bañez, 54, was on his way to his home in La Union when an unidentified suspect shot the judge and fled after the incident.

Bañez was rushed to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead on arrival, Marquez added.

“Motive of the incident is yet to be determined,” the police report read.

Bañez is the fifth active judge killed since the start of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. His murder came six months after Zamboanga del Norte Judge Reymar Lacaya was gunned down in a justice hall in Liloy town.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines has tallied more than 30 deaths of members of the Philippine Bar—lawyers, prosecutors and judges—that have been killed since 2016.

Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta condemned the killing of Bañez and called on law enforcement agencies to “exert their best efforts and be relentless in their investigation.”

Acquitted health worker Mariano in September

Last September, Bañez acquitted Rachel Mariano, health program coordinator of Baguio-based Community Health, Education, Services and Training in Cordillera Region, of murder charges.

Police sued Mariano and several others in connection with an Oct. 15, 2017 attack by the New People’s Army in Quirino, Ilocos Sur, where a soldier was killed and another wounded.

But Bañez held that the court “is not morally convinced of her guilt.” The judge added that “it would be deplorable to convict the accused of all these serious crimes charged against her upon the quality of evidence adduced by the prosecution.”