Another lawyer shot dead in Danao City

CEBU CITY — A lawyer was shot and killed by two gunmen on a motorcycle along the national highway in Danao City on Thursday, barely three weeks after another lawyer in Cebu province was murdered.

Lawyer Baby Maria Concepcion Landero-Ole was driving her car on the way to this city when she was attacked at 2:50 p.m., said Police Maj. Ma. Theresa Macatangay, chief of the Danao police. She died while being taken to a hospital.

Ole was killed almost six months after her husband, Juanito, was shot dead by two unidentified men in Danao. Juanito had just been released from New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, and investigators did not reveal the nature of his case.

Ole’s murder came after lawyer Joey Luis Wee was shot and killed while he was going to his office in Cebu City on Nov. 23.

The National Bureau of Investigation on Dec. 9 arrested a suspect in the killing of Wee and filed charges against five other people who allegedly conspired to kill Wee.

Macatangay said investigators of Ole’s killing would review footage from security cameras in the area.

“This attack is not only an attack against the life of an officer of the court, but is also an assault to the legal profession and to the rule of law,” said lawyer Ria Lydia Espina, chapter president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines in Cebu.