De Lima orders intensified search for missing lawyer

MANILA, Philippines - Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday ordered an intensified search for a Bataan lawyer who has remained missing since last June 20.

After meeting with the family of lawyer Joe Frank Zuñiga, De Lima said she would tap the intelligence services of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to coordinate with their counterparts in the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines to search for the missing lawyer.

“We should consolidate our efforts because the longer it takes since he disappeared, the chance of finding him becomes less,” she told reporters.

“There’s no indication that something bad already happened to him, so we are still hoping to find him,” she added.

De Lima said the NBI would investigate the lawyer’s disappearance, saying they could look into an “internal struggle in their church as one of the strongest theories.”

“But we can never say for sure what the motive really was until there’s an investigation. For now, our priority is to locate Atty. Zuñiga,” she added.

Zuñiga’s family was accompanied by fellow human rights lawyer and fellow Methodist Harry Roque Jr. in seeking De Lima’s help.

Zuñiga is a human rights lawyer who is also an active pastor of Iglesia Metodista sa Pilipinas.

He was a former officer of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Bataan chapter. The IBP earlier had expressed concern about his disappearance and vowed to extend its help in searching for him.

Zuñiga, 54, was last seen at the Ocean Adventure Park in Subic, Zambales. He last spoke to John Nash, one of the officials of Ocean Adventure.

According to witnesses, Zuñiga was reportedly on his red Honda Civic (license plate RRJ 593) when he was supposedly seized by the occupants of a white van.