Butuan judge shot dead

BUTUAN CITY, Philippines – A judge was killed while his wife was seriously wounded in a gun attack in this city yesterday.

Butuan City Regional Trial Court Branch 4 Judge Godofredo Abul Jr. and his wife Bernadita were in their  a car and about to leave their house at Alviola Village in Barangay Tiniwisan before 10 a.m. when the gunman entered through the open gate of their garage and opened fire.

Witnesses said the gunman fled on a motorcycle driven by his cohort.

Abul succumbed to four gunshot wounds. His wife was initially taken to the Butuan City Medical Center, but transferred to a private hospital.

Investigators said they have leads in the killing, but refused to give details.

Chief Inspector Ephraim Detuya, Butuan City police station 4 commander, said Abul had just arrived from a vacation in Cebu on Aug. 1.

Detuya said the Supreme Court suspended Abul for six months in February in connection with an extortion case filed by a Catholic priest, whose relative is facing drug charges.

Abul was the second Caraga judge killed this year.

Retired Surigao City judge Victor Canoy was gunned down while buying food at an eatery along Borja street last Feb. 2.

On Feb. 6, Surigao City prosecutor Manuel Tesiorna, 47, was wounded in a gun attack while washing his car outside his house.

Lawyers in Surigao del Norte withdrew their representation in drug-related cases in protest of the attacks.

Members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines in the province said they would not handle drug-related cases until those responsible for the attacks against prosecutors and judges are arrested.

“We will not be able to do our jobs if our lives and the lives of our families are in peril,” the lawyers said in a statement. “Stop killing lawyers. Let us do our jobs as defenders of rights and due process.”