Lawyer ambushed
AFTER KERWIN ESPINOSA PROMULGATION
Lawyer and Ronda Vice Mayor Jonnah John Ungab was ambushed in broad daylight outside a courthouse in Cebu City yesterday, about two hours after appearing at the promulgation of a case against his high-profile client Roland “Kerwin” Espinosa.
Ungab became the second legal counsel to have been killed while rendering services to Espinosa, a self-confessed drug lord.
The 43-year-old lawyer was driving his gray Suzuki Ciaz (KFX 893) and about to turn right on S. Osmeña Boulevard outside the Qimonda IT Center at the North Reclamation Area, which houses the Cebu City Palace of Justice, when an unidentified assailant fired shots at him past 11 a.m.
With him in the car was his wife, Pearl, who was unscathed from the shooting.
Ungab suffered gunshots to his left temple and upper jaw and was declared dead on arrival at Chong Hua Hospital in Mandaue City.
Police have launched a manhunt against two persons: the gunman, who was wearing yellow and orange clothes and surgical mask, and another man who served as a lookout and drove the runaway motorcycle.
Senior Police Officer 1 Winston Ybañez, a homicide investigator at the Cebu City Police Office, said the gunman approached Ungab’s car and shot the lawyer twice.
He said they recovered two empty shells of .45 caliber firearm at the crime scene.
Ybañez said because of the shooting, Ungab may have stepped on the accelerator and crashed into a taxi that was going to the same direction as he was, before his car slowed down and stopped outside a nearby hotel’s parking space.
“Gikan sila og hearing sa Qimonda. Pagdayong liko, diha to gitirahan sila. Pagaccelerate niya, nabangga ang taxi, napasok diri sa Sugbutel. Giatangan gyud ni siya,” Ybañez said.
The taxi driver, Romeo Roxas, suffered minor injuries to his head. He told reporters that his passenger saw the gunman casually walk from the crime scene.
The gunman boarded a Mio motorcycle waiting in front of the court compound, driven by a cohort wearing a black shirt. The two fled to the direction of Mandaue City.
MOMENTS TO DEATH
Prior to the ambush, Ungab appeared before the sala of Regional Trial Court Branch 23 Judge Generosa Labra as legal counsel of Espinosa (see separate story on Page 1).
He assisted Espinosa during the promulgation of the latter’s case for a violation of Comelec gun ban and illegal possession of firearms. That was his first order of the day.
At around 10:15 a.m., Ungab then proceeded to RTC Branch 11 for the continuation of the cross-examination of Senior Police Officer 1 Aquiles Gimenez in a proceeding presided by Judge Ramon Daomilas.
Gimenez was one of the prosecution witnesses to testify against Ungab’s client, Petru Loan Uvegas, who was charged for violation of Section 9 (C) of Republic Act 8484 or Access Devices Regulation Act of 1998.
Ungab went out of RTC Branch 11 at around 11 a.m. and dropped by at RTC Branch 58 for another case.
Few minutes later, the lawyer and his wife left the court compound onboard a car.
THREE ANGLES
Superintendent Artemio Ricabo, CCPO deputy director for administration, said the gunman apparently had the skills of a professional gun-forhire.
Initial investigations revealed that the two assailants had been waiting in front of the Qimonda building. The gunman first received a phone call from the “spotter” and positioned at the exit part of the compound.
As of yesterday, police were looking into three possible motives behind the killing: personal grudge, workrelated, and politics.
Chief Superintendent Robert Quenery, director of Police Regional Office-7, has directed the CCPO to conduct a thorough investigation, “leaving no stones unturned.”
The CCPO, meanwhile, has formed Task Force Ungab to investigate the incident, composed of three units that include the Investigation and Detection Management Branch (IDMB), Mabolo police, and homicide section of CCPO. The task force will be led by IDMB chief Superintendent Ryan Devaras.
The National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas said it was also willing to conduct a parallel investigation, according to NBI-7 Director Patricio Bernales.
UNGAB’S MANY HATS
Ungab was not just a lawyer. To his constituents, he was an active public leader and to his family, a cheerful person whose presence always made family events more special.
Before the killing, Ungab was serving a third term as vice mayor of Ronda, a town located about 80 kilometers southwest of Cebu City.
In fact, in a Facebook post on Sunday, a day before his killing, Ungab wrote: “Just realized that 8 years ago, I accepted the biggest challenge then of running for the 2nd man in Ronda. Thank you, dear God, for always being there to guide and nurture me to lead within your ways.”
A member of a political clan in the town, he first served as a municipal councilor for two terms starting in 2004 before running for and winning the vice mayoral seat in 2010 under One Cebu-Lakas Kampi CMD.
At some point, he was elected as president of the Vice Mayors’ League of the Philippines in Central Visayas.
According to Ronda Mayor and Ungab’s uncle Mariano Blanco, this was his nephew’s last term.
Blanco was all-praises to the lawyer, saying Ungab was never suspended or penalized for negligence of his job as the town’s “second man.”
Ungab finished his law studies at the Southwestern University, where he graduated in 2000. The next year, he passed the Bar with a rating of 81.1 percent.
Eventually, he and another lawyer Rey Gealon decided to make their law firm that focuses on criminal, civil, and immigration cases.
Ungab was married to Pearl for about 20 years now, and together, the couple was blessed with six children.
Still reeling from the tragedy, the family had requested privacy as of this writing.
A nephew, John Majed Ungab, told The FREEMAN that the family was still in a state of shock.
“We demand justice. We will see to it that justice will be served,” John Majed, a law student, said.
Majed remembers Ungab as a jolly person, who always loved to goof around with family members.
REACTIONS
As news about Ungab’s death broke, members of the legal community in Cebu, along with local elective officials, were one in condemning his killing.
Lawyer Mundlyn Misal-Martin, president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu Chapter, of which Ungab was a member, said: “This act of violence against us lawyers has no place in a civil society. As lawyers, we are only doing our job as mandated by the law and as our personal commitment to our clients.”
Jose Glenn Capanas, president of IBP Cebu City Chapter, said the ambush was not just an attack against Ungab “but an averse affront to the administration of justice and the rule of law, which the lawyering profession passionately represents and is duty-bound to safeguard.”
Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III and Vice Governor Agnes Magpale were also jolted upon hearing the news.
“I am shocked by the violent death of Ronda Vice Mayor John Ungab. My sincerest condolence to his family. I strongly urge our law enforcers to bring those responsible to justice,” Davide said.
Magpale, for her part, expressed concerns about the safety of public officials.
Meanwhile, a group calling itself Cebu for Human Rights (C4HR) also denounced the killing that it said “was meant to send a message to lawyers not to defend those accused of drug violations.”
“Atty. Ungab did not deserve to die. He did not commit any crime by defending an alleged drug lord. He is just doing his job as a lawyer. Every person accused of a crime is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty,” C4HR, which is mainly composed of lawyers, said in a statement.
SECOND CASUALTY
Ungab was the second lawyer of Espinosa to be killed in a similar manner after the latter was tagged in 2016 by President Duterte as a bigtime drug lord in the Visayas.
On August 23, 2016, lawyer Rogelio Bato Jr. was shot dead in his car by unidentified men in Tacloban City. A 15-year-old girl named Angelica Bonita, who was with Bato at the time of the ambush, was also killed.