The Supreme Court has created an inter-agency task force that will investigate the recent spate of killings of magistrates.
SC spokesman Theodore Te revealed that the high court’s committee on security headed by Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen, will handle the investigation.
“Justice Leonen will discuss with appropriate agencies of government towards the creation of a task force/task group to address the continuing assassinations and killings of judges while in the performances of their duties,” Te stressed.
Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation disclosed that it has created a team, which will probe into the killing of a Samar provincial court judge, who was gunned down inside a cockpit in Pambujan town, Samar last Sunday afternoon.
NBI Assistant Director Medardo Delemos said that he has already directed NBI-Deputy Director for Regional Operations Services Atty. Edmund Arugay to investigate the assassination of Judge Reynaldo Espinar of the Laoang Municipal Trial Court.
Espinar was reportedly watching the cockfights at the Padcor arena in Pambujan poblacion when the still unidentified gunman walked up to him and shot him three times in the head.
The assailant then fired warning shots in the air, causing a stampede in the arena but giving Espinar’s bodyguard, Wilfredo Saromenes, the chance to open fire and kill him.
Even if the supposed gunman was already dead, Delemos stressed that they still wanted to know the motive behind Espinar’s killing.
Espinar, 53, was the fourth court official killed in the country this year and the second judge slain this month.
Court interpreter Ibnohajar Puntukan of Shariah court in Jolo, Sulu was killed on March 4 while Judge Erwin Alaba was shot dead in Baler, Aurora on Sept. 1.
Barely two weeks before the killing of Espinar, Malolos RTC Judge Wilfredo Nieves was ambushed by unidentified gunmen while waiting for the stoplight to turn to green along MacArthur Highway in Barangay Ticay, Malolos, Bulacan.
Malacañang, the Supreme Court and the Bulacan and Central Luzon chapters of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines condemned the killing of the judges.
Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno and all the Associate Justices expressed their “outrage and sadness” over the two incidents as they called on authorities to “take all necessary steps with all deliberate speed to do justice” for Judges Nieves and Espinar.
“The killing of judges represents the ultimate shortcut and an affront to the rule of law. Killing of judges not only threatens other judges in the performance of their functions, but it also undermines the neutral environment so essential for fair and evenhanded decision-making,” Sereno said.