Judge who handled raps vs Parojinogs shot dead in Ozamiz City

MANILA, Philippines — A judge in Ozamiz City was shot dead yesterday.

Ozamiz City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 15 Judge Edmundo Pintac was on his way home in Barangay Banadero when he was shot by motorcycle-riding men.

Pintac handled the drug cases against Parojinog siblings Ozamiz Vice Mayor Nova Princess and Reynaldo Jr. before they were transferred to the Quezon City RTC earlier this year.

Last year, Pintac denied the request of the siblings to attend the funeral of their parents and other family members who were killed in simultaneous police raids.

Chief Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro condemned the killing and called on authorities to resolve the case and arrest the perpetrators.

De Castro said she instructed court administrator Midas Marquez to “coordinate with all law enforcement agencies to bring to justice those responsible for the crime.”

“I’m calling on the PNP (Philippine National Police) to exert all means and efforts to apprehend the perpetrators at the soonest possible time,” De Castro said.

Meanwhile, Anania Rebato, 57, former mayor of San Jose de Buan town in Samar, was critically wounded while his bodyguard Severino Tesorio, 24, was killed in a gun attack also yesterday.

The victims were about to board their vehicle in Barangay Babaclayon when they were shot.

Although wounded,  Tesorio managed to return fire before he died, killing one of the four gunmen.

Rebato remains confined in a hospital in Tacloban City.

The body of the slain suspect, who remains unidentified, is in the morgue of the Samar Provincial Hospital. – With Lalaine Jimenea