Lawyer gunned down as he arrived home in Tanjay

TANJAY CITY, Negros Oriental—A lawyer was shot and killed by a still unidentified gunman in front of his common-law wife and 4-year-old son outside their home on Friday.

Lawyer Manolo Zerna, 48, was aboard his motorcycle waiting for his partner, Evelyn Martinez, and their 4-year-old son, Yahshuah, to open the gate of their house on Legaspi Street, Barangay 9, when shots rang out.

Zerna slumped to the ground while the lone gunman casually walked to a lookout who was waiting in a motorcycle. The two fled to the direction of Pamplona town.

Police said they are looking at the killing as possibly job-related.

“Lawyering entails a risk,” said Senior Supt. Edward Carranza, Negros Oriental police chief.

The killing of Zerna came nearly a year after the killing of another lawyer, Archez Martinez, in Dumaguete City.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines has expressed alarm over the spate of killings of judges and lawyers that remain unsolved.