Lawyer shot dead in Las Piñas

MANILA, Philippines—A lawyer was killed Wednesday evening after he was shot in the head by a gunman outside his home in Las Piñas City.

Labor lawyer Felimon Tercero, 55, president of the National Association of Trade Unions, succumbed to his injury an hour after he was brought to the Perpetual Help Medical Center.

Las Piñas City police chief Senior Superintendent Romulo Sapitula said that the incident happened at around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, in front of Tercero’s house at Casimiro Townhomes, Admiral Village in Talon 3.

Sapitula revealed that Tercero had just alighted from his white Mitsubishi Pajero after attending a hearing at the Las Piñas City hall of justice when he was shot in the back of the head by a man armed with a .45 cal. pistol.

The gunman then fled with a cohort who had acted as lookout.

The bloodied Tercero was rushed by his wife to the nearest hospital where he was pronounced dead by attending doctors at around 6 p.m.

Sapitula said that the victim’s neighbors recalled seeing a motorcycle-riding man waiting outside the lawyer’s house, several minutes before the incident. The neighbors claimed that the rider approached the lawyer’s sports utility vehicle as it pulled up in front of the house.

He said investigators are looking into the possibility that Tercero had been killed over one of the labor cases he was handling.

Sapitula assured that follow-up operations are underway to find those behind the killing.