The suspects behind the killing of 35-year-old Palawan lawyer Eric Jay Magcamit have been arrested and charged, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines announced today.
Read: Palawan lawyer shot to death while traveling to court hearing
The alleged killers were identified and caught within a week after Magcamit died, the organization’s president Domingo Egon Cayosa said in a statement. He did not name the suspects.
“We appreciate and commend the swift action and all those who helped bring the murderers before the bar of justice,” Cayosa said.
Magcamit was driving towards Quezon town to attend a court hearing when the assailants flagged him. He was shot three times when he alighted from his car. Before he died, Magcamit told his spouse that a vehicle was tailing after him on several occasions. The authorities earlier found four “persons of interest” in connection with Magcamit’s killing.
He is the 52nd lawyer to be killed since President Rodrigo Duterte came into power in July 2016.
“Beyond the consistent condemnation and justified outrage, we must act resolutely on lawyer-killings because violence against judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and our fellow-workers in the justice sector mocks and erodes the rule of law,” Cayosa said.
“For if those who administer justice are themselves killed with impunity, how can the ordinary citizen believe in due process or feel safe and secure?” he added.
The association is also working with the authorities to find the suspects behind the killing of Cebu City lawyer Joey Luis Wee, who was shot to death early this week as he was walking towards his office. The crime occurred almost a month after another lawyer in Cebu province, James Joseph Gupana, survived an ambush in Lapu-Lapu City.
Wee was the lawyer of former Department of Public Works and Highways officials who were allegedly behind the overpricing of lampposts that were installed for the 2007 Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit. His family said he was working on several important cases before his death.
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