Cebu lawyer, pa killed in shooting incidents over parking dispute

CEBU CITY—A young lawyer died on Christmas Day, three days after a security guard shot him and also killed his father over a parking dispute.

Gerik Paderanga, 37, succumbed to bullet wound in the nape at 11:20 p.m. while confined at the hospital in Cebu City.

He was scheduled to be buried at 4 p.m. on Monday at the Angelicum Garden of Angels cemetery in Canduman, Mandaue City where his father, Goering, was also buried, said lawyer Ian Sapayan, a relative of the Paderangas.

Gerik was about to board his Isuzu Trooper, which was parked outside their law office on F. Ramos Street here, when Jonathan Sanchez approached him from behind and shot him in the nape about 8 p.m. on Dec. 22.

When Goering heard the bursts of gunfire, Goering rushed out of the law office but was also shot. The assailant fled on board a public utility vehicle.

Goering, 62 and husband of Judge Sylva Aguirre-Paderanga of the Regional Trial, Court Branch 16, died of three gunshot wounds in the body. He was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.

Sanchez was identified by witnesses as one of the security guards hired by Monocrete Construction Philippines Inc., the contractor of an extension project of Club Ultima.

The lawyers’ law firm is located along a narrow road that leads to the construction site of a condominium project of Crown Regency Club Ultima being undertaken by Monocrete Construction.

Sanchez was arrested the next day by the police and owned up to the crime, saying he was angry at the lawyers for blocking the entry of the cement mixer to the construction site that he was guarding.

“The mixer was on the way to the construction site and the lawyer’s vehicle blocked the drive way. The cement might dry up,” he earlier told reporters.

He said he didn’t bother to call the attention of the lawyers for obstructing the road because they would just argue. He just decided to shoot them instead.

PO3 Jerry Genelaso of the Cebu City Police Office’s Homicide Division said Goering earlier filed a civil suit in court against Monocrete Construction to prohibit large trucks and concrete mixers from entering the narrow road.

The court eventually issued a temporary restraining order but Goering opted not to implement it, hoping that he and Monocrete Construction would settle the issue. JE/rga