Lawyer shot dead in South Cotabato
UNIDENTIFIED gunmen shot and killed a lawyer in Surallah, South Cotabato on Wednesday afternoon.
Police identified the victim as Atty. Juan Macababad. He sustained fatal gunshot wounds in the head and body.
Initial reports said two riding-in-tandem gunmen arrived in front of Macababad’s residence in Barangay Poblacion at 5 p.m. and called for the lawyer.
As the lawyer was opening the gate, he was shot in the head and body. The gunmen hurriedly fled.
Macababad was rushed to the Javelosa Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Thursday said the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) AO 35 Task Force will make a determination if the killing of Macababad has any semblance of political color, or any kind of advocacy.
“As part of standard procedure, the DOJ will await the report of local police investigators and evaluate whether the killing falls under the jurisdiction of the inter-agency committee on EJKs,” Guevarra said.
The AO 35 task force is a special unit of the DOJ that conducts an investigation into politically-motivated killings or extrajudicial killings of members of civil society groups, political movements, people’s and non-government organizations, among others.
