Grenade attack on fiscal’s house hit

JUSTICE Secretary Leila de Lima described as “an act of cowardice and intimidation” the grenade attack on the house of a prosecutor in Digos City, Davao del Sur.

In a statement, de Lima said the Department of Justice (DOJ) condemned “in the strongest terms the act of cowardice and intimidation” against Davao del Sur Provincial Prosecutor Artemio A. Tajon whose house was attacked with a PRB fragmentation hand grenade at around 1 a.m. on Oct. 28.

“As public officer charged with, among others, the prosecution of violations of laws, we serve to uphold the rule of law and help preserve and maintain peace and order in our society,” de Lima said.

“For our prosecutors to be subjected to this sort of menace is an offense, not just against PP Tajon, or his family, or to the National Prosecution Service of which he is a member, or even the DOJ as an institution, but against the Filipino people as a whole, as they all rely on public officials, such as our public prosecutors, to do their jobs without fear or favor,” she added.

Regional prosecutor Antonio Arellano, national vice-president of the Chief Prosecutors Association of the Philippines (Cprosa) and Prosecutors League of the Philippines (PLP) vice president for Mindanao, also demanded for a “no nonsense investigation” on the incident.

“It is quite disturbing that this grenade-throwing incident had for its intended victim no less than the highest ranking officer of the National Prosecution Service of the Department of Justice in the Province of Davao del Sur,” Arellano said.

The Cprosa and PLP with the National Prosecution Service of the Department of Justice “jointly condemn this senseless and dastardly act of violence”.

“We also join the various sectors of the community and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Davao del Sur Chapter, in the call for a no nonsense investigation into the incident,” he said.

Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Davao del Sur, chapter president lawyer Israelito Torreon said: “The PNP (Philippine National Police) is earnestly requesting a thorough investigation on the matter so that the perpetrators and mastermind of this grievous act will be unmasked and thereby prosecuted to the fullest extent under the law.” ANC