Cebu town vice mayor shot dead
CEBU CITY — The vice mayor of a southern town in Cebu was killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen after attending a court hearing in Cebu City Monday.
Jonnah John Ungab, vice mayor of Ronda, was shot in the body and head. He died at a private hospital in Mandaue City.
Ungab was driving a car when he was shot at a few meters from the courthouse. His wife, Pearl, who sat beside him, was unharmed.
Ungab, a lawyer, was the counsel of self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa. He had accompanied Espinosa to the court at the Cebu City Hall of Justice in Qimonda Building on the North Reclamation Area.
Espinosa was convicted for violating the election gun ban in 2010, but a case for illegal gun possession was dismissed.
SPO1 Winston Ybañez, Cebu City police homicide investigator, said the gunman must have waited for Ungab outside the courthouse.
Ungab, who was driving a Suzuki Kizashi with license plate KFX 893, was about to turn left on Sergio Osmeña Road when a motorcycle with two men on board
pulled up beside him.
One of the riders fired shots at Ungab before they sped off.
Police said that after he was hit, Ungab must have stepped hard on the accelerator because the car slammed into a taxi before stopping in front of a hotel.
The car bore three bullet holes, two in the left window and one in the windshield.
Ungab was the second lawyer of Espinosa to be ambushed. The first, Rogelio Bato Jr., was gunned by stillunidentified assailants in Leyteon August 23, 2016.