Solima shot inside his home, dies; gunman still at large
Lawyer Salvador Solima died less than 90 minutes after being shot inside his home in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City last night.
Investigators are trying to identify who shot the former government prosecutor and aspiring politician, along with his wife Verose. Police received the alarm at 5:45 p.m. Verose survived.
After his career as a prosecutor ended in 1998, Solima went into private practice and politics. Among his high-profile clients were the late Ermita Barangay Captain Felicisimo Rupinta and ex-cop Engelberto Durano, who in 2016 testified in the Lower House against Sen. Leila de Lima.
Atty. Salvador Solima, 67, was declared dead at 6:58 p.m. after he succumbed to gunshot wounds in his nape and chest After his career as a government prosecutor ended in 1998, Solima took on several high-profile cases Solima’s foray into politics was unsuccessful, losing his bids for Guadalupe barangay captain in 2002 and the mayoralty in 2010
A prominent lawyer died while his wife is in critical condition after two men who posed as clients shot them inside their home on 4th St., Singson Village, Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City yesterday afternoon.
The victims were identified as Atty. Salvador Solima, 67, and his wife, Verose
They were attacked past 5:30 p.m.
“There were two men in their 40s who knocked on our door, saying that they were clients who were endorsed by the city jail and would like to seek legal help from the attorney. So we asked the attorney if they were to be invited inside and he (Solima) agreed,” Warlino Caballes, 47, one of Verose’s helpers, said in Cebuano.
Caballes said that the suspects waited 20 minutes for Solima to finish eating.
“A few moments after their talk inside the attorney’s office, we heard three gunshots. When the two came out, they also shot Madam (Verose) in the head in the living room,” he said.
SPO3 Rommel Bancog of the Homicide Section of the Cebu City Police Office said that Solima, who was shot in the nape and chest, was declared dead at 6:58 p.m., while Verose is fighting for her life inside a private hospital in the city.
Solima was a former government prosecutor as well as an aspiring politician.
He served as a Cebu City assistant prosecutor but was dismissed from service on June 26, 1998 over charges of gross misconduct/grave abuse of authority and gross ignorance of the rules on inquest.
In 2002, he ran for barangay captain of Guadalupe but lost to Eugenio Faelnar.
Among Solima’s clients in that year was policeman Engelberto Durano. In 2016, Durano was among those who testified before the House of Representatives justice committee that alleged drug lords Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz and Kerwin Espinosa had given money to Ronnie Dayan, a driver and lover of Sen. Leila de Lima. Lima, a former justice secretary, was in the first few months of her first term as a senator when Durano and other detainee-witnesses testified against her.
Solima also represented Ermita, Cebu City barangay captain Felicisimo “Imok” Rupinta, who died in an ambush in November 2017.
Solima also ran for Cebu City mayor in 2010 but lost.
One of his high-profile cases was the kidnapping and murder of six-year-old Ellah Joy Pique. He also represented suspected robbery gang leader Joel Somabong. /