A prosecutor was gunned down in Paco, Manila, on Tuesday, and the initial information from the police identified the victim as 62-year-old Jovencio Senados, the chief inquest at the Manila Regional Trial Court.
Senados was gunned down along Quirino Highway and Anakbayan at 11 a.m. while in his car.
The killers were aboard a black SUV, police said.
"We condemn this to the highest level. We will avail of all the resources of the DOJ [Department of Justice] to obtain justice," Prosecutor General Benedicto Malcontento said in a statement shortly after the killing.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate the motive behind the killing of Senados and to get his killers.
“We are shocked by the audacity of this attack. It highlights once again the grave peril that our prosecutors face each day in the discharge of their duties,” Guevarra said.
At least 50 lawyers, prosecutors and judges have been killed under the Duterte administration.
The National Union of People’s Lawyers denounced the killing and blamed it on the “prevailing culture of violence and climate of impunity engendered by official hate speech and penchant for vindictiveness.
“Whatever the motive and whoever the perpetrators as should be credibly established, this is absolutely unacceptable in a supposedly civilized and democratic society.”
