A leader of the House of Representatives on Monday slammed the law-enforcement authorities for their alleged failure to deter crime as another lawyer was shot dead in Cebu this week.
Lawyer Baby Maria Concepcion Landero-Ole was gunned down while driving along a Danao City highway on Thursday. She is the second lawyer killed in Cebu within the span of one month.
“At this point, we have to ask what the authorities are doing about the spate of killings of law workers. We are not asking for special protection—rather, we wish to remind our authorities to do their jobs,” Deputy Majority Leader and Rizal Rep. Fidel Nograles said.
“Failure to protect law workers isn’t just a failure to protect a special branch, but the whole populace.”
Nograles said the growing list of casualties of lawyers, prosecutors, and judges since 2016, which now stands at 54, should “jolt our law enforcement bodies into action.”
He said the fact that the killings were committed during broad daylight meant there were lapses in the law enforcement process.
He also appealed to the authorities to speak out to reassure Filipinos that they were taking the issue of law enforcement seriously.
“Can we rely on our police to protect us, or must we take steps to defend ourselves? We need to hear from our law enforcement agencies what they mean to do, and we need to see concrete action soon,” Nograles said.
