Lawyers’ groups slam killing of prosecutor in Davao del Sur

DAVAO CITY, Davao del Sur, Philippines — Lawyers groups in this city are outraged over the killing of Davao Occidental Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Eleanor  “Ning” P. Dela Peña past 5 p.m. on Monday, June 10, on her way home.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Florante S. Retes, chief of the Digos city police,  said  Dela Peña, 54, was aboard a white Ford Raptor pickup and was on her way home to Chapter 8, Tienda, Barangay Aplaya in Digos City when attacked by an assassin.

Responding personnel from the Digos City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) found her dead at the ambush site.

Four hours after the killing, at 9:40 p.m., police arrested a man identified as Dela Peña’s half-brother at the national highway of Talas village in Sulop town of Davao del Sur.

READ: Aguirre orders NBI probe of killing of Davao Oriental prosecutor

According to the police, the suspect Arnel Galot Dela Peña, 56, a former policeman and half-brother of the victim, was identified through the statements of the victim’s son Kenneth De Leon, the closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage near the crime scene and descriptions by witnesses.

Both the Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM) and the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) in Southern Mindanao condemned the murder.

“We call upon the Marcos Jr. administration to take decisive action to end these senseless acts of violence and impunity and to ensure that the perpetrators of these heinous crimes are brought to justice,” said a joint statement signed by Lawyers Antonio Azarcon, UPLM chair and Manuel Quibod, regional coordinator of the FLAG Southern Mindanao.

The lawyers’ groups demanded an end to impunity by bringing justice to the ever-growing list of lawyers, judges, and prosecutors.

“Her senseless killing is an affront to the entire legal community and a brazen desecration of the fundamental principles of justice she upheld,” said the statement.