Justice, wife of slain lawyer prays
Pearl Ungab said she is hoping to attain justice for her slain husband, lawyer and Ronda vice mayor Jonnah John Ungab, but not in the country or anywhere else.
“If there is no justice on earth, he would get justice in heaven,” she said.
Pearl said her Marian devotion and affiliation with Oasis of Love, a Christian charismatic group, have helped her to stay strong spiritually and accept her husband’s death despite the indescribable pain she felt.
“God will provide,” she said. She also said her family and six children are her strong foundations.
The scene of her husband’s death, she said, is still fresh in her memory as though it only happened yesterday, not eight months ago.
Pearl was with Jonnah when the latter was shot by riding-in-tandem assassins while he was driving his car outside Qimonda Building-Cebu City Hall of Justice last Feb. 19. Ungab had attended the promulgation of cases faced by his client, self-confessed Eastern Visayas “drug lord” Rolando “Kerwin” Espinosa Jr., before the attack happened.
A Task Force Ungab was formed by the police to go after the culprits, but no one was arrested and no charges were filed.
Pearl denied her husband was involved in the illegal drug trade, but said he was only doing his job as a legal counsel to his clients, some of whom were accused of drug trading.
“John died because of his principles,” she said.
She said her husband was a hardworking man and thrifty, saving money for spending it on a personal project.
“He told me he had a piggy bank when he was a child,” Pearl said.
Last September, Jonnah John’s uncle, Ronda Mayor Mariano Blanco III, was shot dead by five unidentified men while he was asleep inside his office on the second floor of Ronda Municipal Hall, which stands beside the police station.
Not a single gunman was arrested.
Jonnah John was on his third and last term as vice mayor, while Blanco was also on his last term as mayor.
SunStar Cebu visited the Ungabs’ mausoleum past 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1. Pearl was joined by her children.
Not far stands the mausoleum of Mayor Blanco and his family, but it was empty at that time except for candles. SunStar Cebu tried to get an interview with Blanco’s daughter, but she did not reply.
Sunday, Oct. 28, would have been Pearl and Jonnah John’s 22nd wedding anniversary.
In the 20th year of their marriage in 2016, they renewed their vows.
That day this year Pearl, who was with her family in the United States, offered mass and instructed her relatives left in Cebu to offer roses on Jonnah John’s burial vault.
In the May 2019 midterm elections, Pearl said she decided to run for a seat in the Ronda Municipal Council as an independent candidate as a way of honoring her husband’s unfinished duty as public servant.
Pearl, before her representative filed her certificate of candidacy early this month, said Jonnah John’s supporters persuaded her to run for mayor.
“I begged off out of respect for the Blanco family,” she said in Cebuano.
Last August, she visited the mausoleum and asked Jonnah John for a sign if he was with her plan to join public service. The sign she asked for was for her to see a politician.
Pearl, while she was on her way home, saw a friend, a former politician and they had a brief chat. She later realized it was the sign her husband gave her to continue her plan to join the local politics for the first time.
“John did not want me to be weak,” she said.
Pearl said she won’t mind if she cannot win a seat in the municipal council, but she said she trusts that there are wise voters in the town.
“I have experienced too many losses in my life, including the death of my husband,” she said. “Ginoo ray bahala nako (God will take care of me).”