CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Police have secured several witnesses to the killing of a regional trial court (RTC) judge in Baler, capital town of Aurora province, on Tuesday.
A special task group from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the provincial and municipal police offices held its first case conference into the killing of Judge Erwin Alaba, 45, presiding judge at the Baler Regional Trial Court Branch 91, Senior Supt. Danilo Florentino, Aurora police director, told the Inquirer on the phone, on Wednesday.
Alaba was the first judge in Central Luzon who was murdered in the last five years, said Chief Supt. Rudy Lacadin, Central Luzon police director and former CIDG chief in the region.
Florentino did not provide details of the witnesses’ background and their testimonies to protect them.
A lone assailant stood in front of Alaba’s Mitsubishi Montero and fired successive shots shortly after the judge parked the sport utility van in front of the Municipal Circuit Trial Court (MCTC) in Barangay Suklayin at 2 p.m. The gunman fled on a motorcycle.
Alaba was with his wife, Margarita, in the vehicle.
Investigators found a handgun in Alaba’s vehicle but he was not able to return fire, Florentino said.
Florentino said Alaba apparently tried to shield his wife, who was hit in the hand, and had seven bullet wounds—four in the left arm and three in the body. The judge died before reaching Premiere Hospital, also in Baler.
His wife, who is still in recovery in the hospital, and their three children had been secured by the police. Private security personnel secured the court compound in Baler as courtrooms and offices resumed normal operations on Wednesday.
Florentino said investigators were checking Alaba’s case load to determine if the killing was an act of revenge.
In a statement, the Supreme Court said Alaba was “handling sensitive drug cases and some land disputes” before he was killed.
Visiting Baler on orders of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, court administrator Midas Marquez met with Aurora’s police director and the Baler chief of police on Wednesday “to relay” her call for a speedy investigation. He also condoled with the victim’s family.
Marquez instructed Alaba’s staff “to conduct an inventory of cases and case incidents, which could have triggered the fatal shooting.”
Sereno and the high court’s associate justices had earlier expressed “outrage and sadness” over the killing, demanding immediate justice for his death. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon and Tarra Quismundo in Manila