Judge shot dead, wife wounded in court compound in Baler

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga—-A regional trial court judge in Baler town in Aurora province was shot and killed by a lone gunman on Tuesday afternoon, a police official said.

Chief Supt. Rudy Lacadin, Central Luzon police director, said Judge Jude Alaba, presiding judge of the Baler RTC, was the first judge slain in the region in the last five years.

Lawyer Paul Maglalang, an official of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines in the region, confirmed Lacadin’s information.

Lacadin said Alaba, 45, was shot as he was parking his car at the court compound in Barangay Suklayin in Baler at 2 p.m. The judge’s wife, Margarita, was wounded in the attack.

Alaba died while being taken to the Premiere Hospital in Baler.

The gunman fled aboard a motorcycle, police said.

At least seven bullets pierced the windshield of the judge’s car, said Elson Egargue, executive director of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Egargue said Alaba had been working as RTC judge in Baler for about two years.

Lacadin said investigators are checking the cases filed in Alaba’s sala as well as the judge’s background to establish the possible motive in the slaying.

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