Tuguegarao trial lawyer shot dead

TUGUEGARAO CITY , Philippines– Police are looking into work-related angle in the fatal shooting of a trial lawyer by motorcycle-riding men here Wednesday night.

Superintendent Jay Cumigad, city police chief, said slain lawyer Isagani Garcia, 35, a law professor at the Cagayan State University Tuguegarao City campus, reportedly handled high-profile cases.

Police said Garcia had just attended his class when the assailants overtook his car and fired several .45-caliber bullets at him at around 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Judge Andrew Barcena of Ilagan City Regional Trial Court Branch 17 broke the news on Garcia’s killing during the launch yesterday morning of the Justice on Wheels program of the Supreme Court (SC).

The affair was attended by SC administrator Midas Marquez, judges and members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Isabela chapter, who all denounced the killing.

Ilagan City RTC Judge Jeffrey Cabasal said he believes that Garcia, who took the Bar exams in 1999, could have opposed someone in power that led to his killing.