Cebu lawyer seeks help in finding missing lawyer wife

CEBU CITY — A lawyer has reported his wife, also a lawyer, missing after she failed to come home on Tuesday night.

The Honda City car of lawyer Sarah Cabrera-Calipayan was found at the parking lot of the Banilad Town Center in Barangay Banilad, Cebu City around 8 a.m. on Wednesday, about eight hours after she allegedly went missing.

Police investigators were looking for footages of the closed-circuit television camera to determine what happened to her.

Sarah is the wife of lawyer Jamaal James Calipayan, the chief of staff of Rep. Jonas Cortes of Cebu’s 6th district.

In his Facebook post, Jamaal said he received text messages from his wife at 11 p.m. and 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday that she was on her way home to Lapu-Lapu City on Mactan Island, Cebu.

“(But) she has not come home and her cellphone cannot be reached. It should’ve taken 30 mins only,” said Jamaal.

“All our calls have been unanswered. By 1 a.m., calls were dropped. By 1:30 a.m. the subscriber could not be reached. That would mean that her phone was not simply turned off, or there was no signal. It means the sim card or the battery was removed,” he added.

Jamaal said he went to his wife’s office near the Ayala Business Park in Cebu City around 2 a.m. The parking area logbook, he said, indicated she went out at 6:28 p.m. on Tuesday.

“We need your help to look for her. We have put out an alarm call to the police at Cebu City. Please do help us to look for her,” Jamaal said.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu Province Chapter called on police investigators to do their best to locate Sarah “alive, well, and healthy.”

“I am saddened with the news about Attorney Sarah Cabrera-Calipayan. Attorney Sarah, or Aya, to her friends is a sweet and kind person,” said lawyer Mundlyn Misal-Martin, president of the IBP Cebu Province Chapter.

“She and her husband Attorney James are our Chapter members, and have been very supportive of the Chapter activities. We call [on] all the members of the legal profession to help, in whatever way they can, (be observant and to report if they find any suspicious activity and to use social media to share information about this issue) and to pray that Attorney Aya will return to us in safety,” she added.