The culture of impunity reared its ugly head in Tanjay City at close to midnight last Friday when a still unidentified gunman shot dead a lawyer, Manolo Zerna, in front of his terrified wife and four-year-old son.
As is the case in most killings hereabouts, the gunman walked away after pumping five bullets from a .45 caliber pistol into the lawyer’s body and rode a motorcycle, whose driver was waiting nearby.
The motive for Zerna’s killing is still a mystery, but police have several leads to follow.
The victim’s brother, Prosecutor Arnel Zerna, has invited the National Bureau of Investigation to join the investigation. PNP Provincial Director Sr.Supt. Edward Carranza, meanwhile, is forming Task Force Zerna to look deeper into the killing.
August seems to be a deadly month for lawyers. Last August 5, 2011, lawyer Archer Martinez was shot and killed in cold blood inside his office along San Jose Street in Dumaguete City.
The question that bugs everyone in this province of gentle people is, why do some people apparently find it easy to hire a gunman who has no qualms about taking another person’s life? Could this indicate that jobs are so scarce that some people will literally bite the bullet for a living? Could it also be that they are emboldened because they know that the chances of them getting caught and brought before the bar of justice is between very slim to nil?
One can only look back at the many unsolved killings in Negros Oriental to confirm this suspicion.
But thanks to the police, there are signs that the solution to Martinez’ murder will come very soon. A seemingly insignificant altercation between two men at the Danao City Police Station in Cebu serendipitously provided the Dumaguete police with the missing piece of the puzzle in Martinez’ murder.
We hope Zerna’s family would get justice soon.
See related story: Tanjay lawyer killed in front of son, wife
