Environmental lawyer murdered in Philippines police

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) A Philippine lawyer who specialized in investigating crimes against the
environment has been ambushed and shot dead, police said Friday, February 17.The murder on
Wednesday of Mia Manuelita Mascarinas-Green deepened concerns that the Philippines is one of the
world's most dangerous places for environmental campaigners, with more than 100 killed over the past
15 years.Four motorcycle-riding gunmen opened fire after surrounding a van being driven by Mascarinas-
Green -- with her children and nanny in the vehicle -- near her home on the central island of Bohol, the
authorities said.MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) A Philippine lawyer who specialized in investigating
crimes against the environment has been ambushed and shot dead, police said Friday, February 17.The
murder on Wednesday of Mia Manuelita Mascarinas-Green deepened concerns that the Philippines is one
of the world's most dangerous places for environmental campaigners, with more than 100 killed over the
past 15 years.Four motorcycle-riding gunmen opened fire after surrounding a van being driven by
Mascarinas-Green -- with her children and nanny in the vehicle -- near her home on the central island of
Bohol, the authorities said.Mascarinas-Green was pronounced dead at a hospital but her children were
unharmed, regional police spokesman Senior Inspector Reslin Abella told AFP."The victim is a known
environmental lawyer. Investigators are checking whether the attack had any link to the cases she had
handled in relation to environmental issues," Abella told the Agence France-Presse by telephone."They
now have the identity of at least one of the perpetrators and a hot pursuit operation is ongoing," she said
without naming the suspect.Abella said police were at the moment unaware if Mascarinas-Green had
been threatened previously in relation to her work.Her children are twins, aged two, and a 10-year-old
daughter, according to local media reports. Her death brings to 112 the number of environmental
campaigners murdered in the Philippines over the past 15 years,according to Filipino environment
monitor Kalikasan.This includes 12 since President Rodrigo Duterte took office 7 months ago, Kalikasan
said."Most of these cases remain unresolved as the government continues to ignore the threat against
environmental defenders," Clemente Bautista, its national coordinator told AFP."What this means is that
the perpetrators are emboldened to do it again and again because no one ever gets caught."

http://www.rappler.com/nation/161782-environmental-lawyer-murdered-philippines
Espinosa lawyer, girl killed in Leyte ambush

MANILA, Philippines The lawyer of alleged drug lord Kerwin Espinosa and his father Mayor Rolando
Espinosa Sr. of Albuera, Leyte and a teenage girl were gunned down yesterday by still unidentified men in
Tacloban City.Killed were lawyer Rogelio Bato Jr. and Angelica Bonita, 15, a resident of Fatima Village and
a student of a nearby public high school. It is not clear why Bonita was with Bato.Bato and Bonita were
riding in the lawyers car when the suspects ambushed them at around 2:30 p.m. in Barangay Lumbang II
in Tacloban.City police chief Sr. Supt. Rolando Bade said witnesses told investigators that they saw a white
Hi-lux pickup following Batos car. As the gunmen sped, ahead the occupants started firing at the lawyers
car.Investigators recovered empty shells of an M16 rifle and a caliber .45 pistol at the crime scene.Bato
was a native of Samar.Headlines ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The lawyer had
represented the younger Espinosa in his drug-related cases, and those of his accomplices caught for either
drugs or illegal possession of firearms.There are speculations that the lawyer was killed so that no one
would represent the Espinosa.From behind, the suspects vehicle sped up, and when the pick-up was
beside the victims vehicle, gunmen shot the victims repeatedly. After the shooting, the suspects vehicle
then maneuvered out of the one-way road and sped off, said Bade in a phone interview.Police Officer 2
Harvey Subido of the local Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) said the victims suffered at least five
gunshot wounds each.They died on the spot. We recovered at least 10 empty shells for M16 rifle. We
are still accounting for other empty shells which appear to be coming from a caliber .45 pistol, he
added.Initial investigation showed the victims appeared to have just come from the lawyers house
located near the ambush site.Bade described the ambush site as not a populated area, which the assassins
found ideal to stage the ambush.Investigators are still looking for witnesses to give them more
information about the gunmen.Mayor Espinosa had earlier surrendered to Philippine National Police chief
Director General Ronald dela Rosa in Camp Crame, Quezon City after being given 24 hours by President
Duterte to surrender.He was subsequently released since there were no charges filed against the mayor
at the time.Bade said they could not make any statement on whether the killing was connected with
Batos being a lawyer of Espinosa, who has been linked to illegal drug operations in Eastern Visayas
through his son Kerwin.Tagged as drug supplier in Eastern Visayas, Kerwin was reportedly directly getting
drugs from Peter Co, a drug lord detained at the New Bilibid Prison.Police have filed several charges
against him in connection with the death of six of his men in a clash with police and the raid on his house
where 11 kilos of shabu worth P88 million and a cache of firearms were seized.Interior Secretary Ismael
Sueo earlier confirmed that policemen were assigned to monitor the movements of Espinosa while
waiting for the arrest warrant on the cases slapped against him. With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Rolex
Elmido/The Freeman

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/08/24/1616726/espinosa-lawyer-girl-killed-leyte-ambush
Lawyer shot dead, son wounded by guard in Cebu City

CEBU CITY A lawyer was killed while his son was wounded on Thursday night after they were shot by a
security guard near their law firm on F. Ramos Street in Barangay Santa Cruz, Cebu City.Goering Paderanga
Sr., 62, died at the hospital while his son, Gerik, 37, also a lawyer, was undergoing treatment for a gunshot
wound in the nape, said PO3 Jerry Genelaso of the Cebu City Police Offices Homicide Section.A witness
said a security guard identified as Jonathan Sanchez waited for Gerik to leave the law office before
attacking.At about 8 p.m., Gerik stepped out of the office and walked to his Nissan Trooper to head
home.Before Gerik could step into the vehicle, the assailant walked near him and shot him.A househelp
and Geriks 1-year-old nephew, who were inside the vehicle, managed to run. When he heard bursts of
gunfire, Goering went out of the law firm.The assailant then shot Goering before he fled on board a public
utility vehicle, the witness whose identity was being withheld told police.Genelaso said they were still
determining the motive behind the attack.Georing was the husband of Judge Sylva Aguirre-Paderanga of
the Regional Trial Court Branch 16.The witness said that no verbal argument took place before the
shooting happened.Gidiretso ra gyud niya og pagpusil. (He just shot the victims), said the witness who
knew the suspect since the latter was the guard on duty of a newly constructed building about 50 meters
away from the law firm of the victims.The witness said Sanchez covered his uniform with a jacket when
he shot the victims. The witness was about 50 meters away from the crime scene when the shooting
happened. SFM

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/855848/lawyer-shot-dead-son-wounded-by-guard-in-cebu-city

Lawyer shot dead in North Cotabato

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Gunmen shot dead a senior provincial lawyer of the Public Attorneys
Office (PAO) at past 10:00 a.m. Saturday in Matalam town in North Cotabato province.The victim, 54-year-
old Honorato Mazo, was emerging from his fenced residential yard driving a Nissan pick-up truck bearing
license plates MEP-842 when the suspects attacked with .45 caliber pistols, killing him on the
spot.Superintendent Bernard Tayong, spokesman of the North Cotabato police office, said investigators
are still trying to establish the identities of the gunmen and their motive for killing Mazo, a senior staff of
PAOs provincial office in North Cotabato.Tayong said Mazo died from multiple bullet wounds he
sustained in the attack.Combined personnel of the provincial police office and the Matalam municipal
police are now trying to locate the suspects, Tayong told The STAR.Tayong said while there is a possibility
that the murder of Mazo could be work-related, they are not discounting other possible angles on the
incident.Nation ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Lets give investigators enough time to
wind up with their task to get to the bottom of this murder case, he said.
http://www.philstar.com/nation/2016/10/08/1631553/lawyer-shot-dead-north-cotabato

Lawyer, pal slain in Manila

MANILA, Philippines - A lawyer and his companion were shot dead in Manila Thursday night.Elmer Mitra
Jr., 38; Alvin Cruzin, 43, and a still unidentified companion were cruising in a gray BMW (XDX-993) at the
corner of Perez and Belen streets just before 10 p.m. when shots were fired inside the vehicle.The car
skidded before hitting the gutter and turning over, witnesses said.Closed-circuit television footage
showed a man crawling out of the car from the backseat, then running toward Apacible street.Police
officers said the man now considered the main suspect was wearing a blue T-shirt and cargo pants. He
was of medium build and at least 59 tall, they said.Probers recovered four spent shells from a 9mm
pistol, six bullets and a 9mm pistol with serial number Z04575. Nation ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1,
sectionmatch: 1 The victims identification cards were found in a brown bag.Mitra is a son of former Pasay
City prosecutor Elmer Mitra.

http://www.philstar.com/metro/2017/06/03/1706108/lawyer-pal-slain-manila

Lawyer of Albuera town mayor killed in ambush

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) The legal counsel of Albuera, Leyte mayor and a teenage companion
were killed in an ambush Tuesday afternoon by still unknown assailants in the city's Barangay Lumbang
2.Rogelio Bato, lawyer of Mayor Rolando Espinosa who had been named on President Rodrigo Duterte's
drug list, died due to multiple gunshot wounds. An 18-year-old girl, who was a student in a city public
school, was also killed in the attack.Police Sr. Supt. Rolando Bade, city police chief, said the two victims
where on a black Toyota Hilux owned by Atty. Bato when men on a white van opened at them around 2
p.m.Bade said witnesses told the police that the assailants' van bore no plate numbers.The police chief
added that investigators were still finding out the motive behind the attack as a manhunt operation had
been launched against the gunmen.Bade said authorities still couldn't say if the assassination was related
to the illegal drug trade.In a previous interview with Chief Supt. Elmer Beltejar, regional director for
Eastern Visayas, he said Bato was one of the personalities in the region under investigation in relation to
alleged links to the illegal drug trade.Bato's client, Mayor Espinosa, had previously surrendered at Camp
Crame and had called on his son, Kerwin, to do the same to heed the President's call against illegal drugs.
http://cnnphilippines.com/regional/2016/08/23/Lawyer-Albuera-town-mayor-killed-ambush.html

Cop kills lawyer in Nueva Vizcaya

Diadi authorities say Police Officer 1 Clifford Dulnuan killed lawyer Jemar Apada, the husband of a fellow
copCAGAYAN, Philippines A police officer allegedly shot dead a lawyer the husband of a fellow cop
in Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya, on Thursday, December 1.Tuguegarao City resident Jemar Apada, 29, was
declared dead on arrival at the Diadi Emergency Hospital after sustaining several gunshot wounds.Police
Chief Inspector Alexander Cabang, Diadi police chief, said in a report that Police Officer 1 Clifford Dulnuan
shot Apada at the boarding house of the victim's wife around midnight Thursday.Apadas wife, a police
officer in Diadi, reportedly witnessed the killing.Cabang said the victims wife and the suspect are both
assignedinDiadi.Police are said they are looking into leads in the case.

http://www.rappler.com/nation/154277-lawyer-killed-cop-nueva-vizcaya

Lawyer killed, 2 wounded in Cebu ambush

CEBU CITY, Philippines A female lawyer was killed while her law partner and office staff were wounded
when they were ambushed by still unidentified men in Barangay Looc, Mandaue City, Cebu, past 6 p.m.
on Thursday.SPO2 Juan Calamba, desk officer of the Mandaue City Police Station 5, identified the fatality
as Amelie Ocaada Alegre, 35.Wounded were her law partner, Briccio Boholst and an office staff, Antonio
Pino who were both recuperating at the University of Cebu Medical Center in Mandaue.Boholst is a former
Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Cebu City president and Mandaue city administrator.Alegre died on the
spot due to multiple gunshot wounds in the body. Boholst was hit in the leg and Pino in the
stomach.Alegre was driving a grey BMW car with plate number ABM 5635 after attending a meeting with
Boholst and Pino in Mandaue.She was supposed to drop off Boholst in Barangay Looc but her vehicle was
fired upon by one of the two men on board a motorcycle when the car reached Catalino Street in Barangay
Looc, Mandaue.Senior Supt. Mariano Natu-el, Mandaue City police director, said they were looking into
all angles of the killing.He said they were securing the testimonies of witnesses and would try to review
the footage of the CCTV installed near the traffic light located 100 meters away from the crime scene.We
cant give any conclusion now, he said.But he said the police would invite Alegres husband for
questioning.Alegres mother Marieta, who rushed to the crime scene upon learning of the ambush, said
her daughter confided to her that she had been receiving death threats from her husband, Ryan Alegre, a
businessman.The couple were sweethearts at the University of San Carlos. They got married in 2004.But
their relationship turned sour four years after when the victim learned that her husband had a
mistress.Her husband eventually filed a petition to annul their marriage in court.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/712815/lawyer-killed-2-wounded-in-cebu-ambush

Baguio woman lawyer shot dead

BAGUIO CITY — A prominent woman lawyer here was shot dead by a lone assassin last Tuesday
afternoon while she was waiting for a ride home in front of a Landbank branch along Harrison Road.
Fifty-five-year-old Victoria Mangapit Sturch, a long-time corporate law professor at the Baguio Colleges
Foundation, succumbed to a bullet from a caliber .25 pistol in the nape.
Last September, Sturch was stabbed six times in an attack believed to be work-related.
Her fellow lawyers have condemned the killing and called on the police to work double-time to solve the
case.Police have formed a crack team to handle the case and even offered a P100,000 reward for
information leading to the arrest of her killer. The National Bureau of Investigation has also stepped into
the case.Probers said the assassin did not try to hide his identity and merely fled on foot along with a
companion who served as a lookout.Kira Espino, a daughter and personal secretary of Sturch, believes
that her mother’s gunslaying was work-related.She revealed that her mother had discussed with
her the possible suspects in last September’s slay attempt. She, however, refused to name them.
Sturch’s remains will be brought to Batac, her hometown in Ilocos Norte, today.
Lawyer Daniel Mangallay, president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ Baguio-Benguet
chapter, condemned Sturch’s murder.He convened a meeting among IBP officers yesterday to
discuss any form of assistance they can extend to the city police for the speedy solution of the case.
Mia Joy Cawed, president of the Association of Lady Lawyers in Baguio and Benguet and a cousin of Sturch,
echoed Mangallay’s condemnation of the killing and prodded the police to hastily solve the case.
Former vice mayor Daniel Farias, now the dean of the University of Baguio’s College of Law,
expressed alarm that such a killing could happen in broad daylight.Several weeks ago, Roberto Fernando,
assistant regional director of the Department of Transportation and Communications, was shot and
wounded by motorcycle-riding men in front of his house. Police remain clueless about the attack.

http://www.philstar.com/nation/246223/baguio-woman-lawyer-shot-dead
Lawyer, casino financier killed by Jessie Carlos

A reputable source has confirmed to The Manila Times that Resorts World gunman Jessie Javier Carlos
was also the suspect in a shooting incident in Paco, Manila on June 1 that killed a lawyer and a former
policeman-turned-casino financier.The victims were identified as Elmer Mitra Jr., 38, and Alvin Cruzin, 43.
Closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage retrieved from Resorts World showed that the two, along with
Carlos, entered its premises around 4 p.m. The source said they had coffee in Maxim Hotel.The requested
CCTV of the groups exit from the hotel was said to be held because of a-then ongoing congressional
investigation.In another CCTV footage of Barangay 674 along Paco Park, the three were seen riding a gray
BMW (XDX 993), with Mitra driving.Witnesses said shots were heard while they were on the road before
the car turned over and hit the gutter.A man was seen crawling out of the car from the backseat at nearly
10 p.m, wearing blue T-shirt and cargo pants, of medium build and about 59 tall.The source said the man
was identified as the same person on the CCTV footage of Barangay 339, the man who arrived at Felix
Huertas and San Lazaro Streets, where Carlos residence is located.The gunman was seen again on the
CCTV at past 11 p.m. leaving his house and wearing his attire apparently for the Resorts World attack with
a black bag.Police recovered four 9mm casings, six bullets and a 9mm pistol with serial number Z04575 in
the car.Mitra is the son of former Pasay City prosecutor Elmer Mitra Sr.Cruzin worked with the Manila
Police District and retired from the police service in 2009 and ran for Pasay City councilor last year.The
senior Mitra said the two, his son and Cruzin were close pals, adding that he advised his son to cut
connection with the ex-policeman as he was allegedly involved in drugs.The source said one of the
possible angles that led to the Resorts World carnage was that the two were pressuring Carlos to pay his
debts but this could not still be confirmed.

http://www.manilatimes.net/lawyer-casino-financer-killed-jessie-carlos/332291/