Thousands attend Nueva Vizcaya rights lawyer's funeral

SOLANO, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – From ordinary folk to lawyers, thousands of people from all walks of life braved the heat of the sun to pay their last respects yesterday to a human rights lawyer who was slain last Tuesday morning.

Lawyer Ernesto Salunat, 64, who figured prominently in the recent elections as the provincial campaign manager of the Liberal Party, was finally laid to rest at a village cemetery in Barangay Uddiawan here where his family hails from. 

A former Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) governor for Northern Luzon, Salunat was shot dead by one of two motorcycle-riding men in front of the municipal trial court (MTC) here as he was set to leave on his white BMW car, after checking his scheduled hearings. 

“He surely did his function as a lawyer… He was performing his duties as a lawyer of this country,” said former Court of Appeals justice Eugenio Labitoria, the slain lawyer’s fellow mason. 

“We assure (his) family that we will not stop until we bring justice to (his) killing,” said lawyer Essex Silapan, also a fellow mason, in a eulogy before Salunat was laid to rest around noontime.

“If we have only the power to do it and if the authorities would be able to bring the gunman before us, we would sentence him several times to death,” said Regional Trial Court Judge Fernando Flor.

The mourners, including national and local IBP members, accompanied Salunat’s remains from his residence in the town proper to the front of the Solano MTC where he was shot dead and then to his final resting place in Barangay Uddiwan.

Bayombong Bishop Ramon Villena said Salunat’s death was a big loss to the diocese, adding that the killing could be Nueva Vizcaya’s “crime of the year.”

“I strongly condemn the brutal, inhuman and horrible killing of a brilliant lawyer… He stands for people who are exploited, oppressed, ejected from their lands,” said Villena, whose diocese covers Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino.

Villena called for the re-imposition of the gun ban in the province to prevent unnecessary killings.