PNP seeks public help in Abra lawyer’s slay probe

By Mark Ernest Villeza

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) has asked the public to help identify and find the killers of lawyer Ma. Saniata Liwliwa Alzate, who was shot dead in Bangued, Abra last week.
    During a press briefing at Camp Crame on Monday, Col. Jean Fajardo, PNP public information office chief, said the PNP is bent on solving the case.
    “We saw on CCTV footage that there were two persons involved in the murder of Alzate,” Fajardo said, referring to closed-circuit television camera.
    The footage showed the assailant approaching Alzate’s vehicle and shooting her before fleeing.
    The gunman later returned to the crime scene on a motorcycle driven by another person.
    Fajardo said the CCTV images were of high quality and the PNP submitted these to its Anti-Cybercrime Group for enhancement.
    Although the suspects’ faces are visible in the footage, Fajardo said the PNP is appealing for public assistance.
    Fajardo urged anyone with information about the suspects to cooperate with the police.
    She said the PNP has yet to determine the motive for the killing.
    Authorities are now hunting the two gunmen who shot dead Alzate afternoon of Sept. 14 around 5 p.m. in Bangued.
    Alzate was a Commissioner of Bar Discipline since 2015.
    In a CCTV footage, the gunmen were seen firing multiple gunshots at Alzate in front of her house while she was inside a car.
    The two assailants then fled on a motorcycle.
    "We call on the public to provide us any relevant information that would assist us in our investigation," Abra police director Col Froiland Lopez said in a statement.
    "Whatever the motive and whoever are the assailants and masterminds, this merciless murder of a young, principled and idealistic lawyer is enabled by impunity engendered by passive, token and ningas cogon responses from State authorities," Edre Olalia, transitional president of lawyers group International Association of Democratic Lawyers, said Friday in a statement.
    Abra Gov. Dominic Valera also condemned the killing of Alzate and urged local authorities to expedite its investigation.
    In a Facebook post, Raphiel Alzate, the widower of the slain lawyer, appealed to the public to donate to a legal fund for continuation of the cases his wife was handling.
    According to Raphiel, who is a former acting presiding judge of a Regional Trial Court in Ilocos Sur and Abra, most of his wife's cases were pro bono, in which legal services wer4e covered by a professional fee or at a lower cost.
    Local police said Alzate was gunned down along Santiago St, Zone 3 around 4:55 p.m.
    Based on initial investigation, Alzate was parking her vehicle when she was shot.
    A concerned citizen witnessed the shooting, brought the lawyer to the nearest hospital and sought assistance of police.
Alzate, the police said, was declared dead a few minutes after reaching hospital.
    The witness said the assassins had blue shirts and dark caps on and fled towards Barangay Consiliman, Zone 2 after the attack.
    Abra provincial police public information office chief Captain Ronaldo Eslabra said based on initial investigation, the victim was inside her white car parked in front of her house when two unidentified assailants shot her.
    The victim was brought to Dr. Petronilo V. Seares Sr. Memorial Hospital, but later died at around 5:05 pm, according to Eslabra.
    After shooting the lawyer, the assailants fled on their motorcycles towards Barangay Consiliman, in the same town.
    One of the assailants was seen wearing a blue polo shirt and dark cap.
    Nearby local police stations are already conducting hot pursuit operations for possible identification and arrest of the assailants.
    Eslabra said a probe is already ongoing and investigators are now checking closed circuit television videos that can help in the case.
    Police were also deployed in the crime scene to guard the area, Eslabra added.
    “We strongly condemn this heartless attack against our sister in the profession. We staunchly urge government authorities to act swiftly in the apprehension of the perpetrators,” the Integrated Bar of the Philippines- Northern Luzon Region said in their statement.
    “When will the killings stop? When will lawyers be allowed to perform their duties in accordance with their lawyer’s oath without fear of reprisal?” said National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) President Ephraim Cortez in a statement, adding that Alzate is the second lawyer killed in less than a month, after the murder of lawyer Elmer Mape on Aug. 22 in Leyte.
    Cortez cited a case handled by Alzate that was favored by the Regional Trial Court of Abra.
    According to IBP, Abra RTC granted a writ of amparo in favor of Excel Billedo, Alzate’s client, on Feb. 20 this year.
    Allegedly, Billedo had been abducted, detained and tortured by Philippine National Police personnel in Bangued.
    The court also granted a protection order for Billedo and his mother.
    The IBP commended not only the judge who promptly resolved the case but also the efforts of Alzate.
    “Her able representation of her clients aided them in their quest for justice despite great risks to herself. It is a sterling example of lawyering for the public interest,” the IBP said.
    Cortez lamented that after the Supreme Court’s issuance of a joint statement to address the issue on attacks against the legal profession and the issuance of the Rule on the Use of Body Worn Cameras, “no other positive action was made to address the issue on the attacks on the members of the legal profession. Several lawyers have since been killed, harassed and intimidated.”
    “Time and again, we have called the attention of authorities to do something about these killings. We have been knocking on doors till the morning light so to speak,” Cortez said.
    Meanwhile, Edre U. Olalia, transitional president of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) said the killing of Alzate is “enabled by impunity engendered by passive, token and ningas kugon responses from state authorities whose single most important job, mandated even by international law, is to protect its citizens from harm.”
    “That it happened again against those who push the tide against injustice speaks volumes on the incompetence, negligence and even complicity of governmental institutions ironically overpopulated by her fellow lawyers,” Olalia said.
    He added that the international legal community has “never seen such cold-blooded murders occurring with such frequency and impunity as in other countries where lawyers are also under attack.”
“As the annual Bar in the Philippines is again around the corner, can we tell our future colleagues that lawyering, especially those fighting for the rights of the poor and oppressed, is worth all the risks despite the body count in our ranks?” Olalia asked.
    The IBP-Northern Luzon said Alzate dedicatedly and selflessly served as chapter president for two terms.
    “A strong principled lady lawyer and an epitome of valor, she readily heeded to the call for help of the underprivileged, oppressed and downtrodden,” the IBP-Northern Luzon said.
    Alzate is the third lawyer killed since Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assumed office, the group said.
    “The NUPL firmly urges all law enforcement agencies to rigorously investigate this incident and, subsequently, bring to justice its perpetrators, echoing its earlier calls made in the wake of attacks on lawyers: Stop the Attacks!” the NUPL said in their statement. – AD with wire reports