There’s something about lawyers and Fridays that doesn’t seem right.
By now, everyone must have heard the tragic story where Atty. Archer Baldwin Martinez died after he was shot right inside his office along San Jose St. by a lone gunman who came to his office Aug. 5 — a Friday — then casually walked away after committing the crime.
Negros Oriental lawyers must hate Fridays. In the last two years, all violent incidents involving lawyers happened on a Friday.
Eliezer Casipong, a lawyer of the Department of Agrarian Reform, was gunned down as he was driving a motorcycle on his way home to Sibulan town on Jan. 30, 2009, a Friday.
Bayawan City Councilor Victoriano Alabastro was attacked by a would-be assailant as he was waiting by a car wash in Bayawan City on Jan. 31, 2010, a Friday. Luckily, the gun jammed and Alabastro was unharmed. But there was a second attempt on Alabastro’s life. This was last June 24, also a Friday, when two gunmen walked up to his car as he was driving home from Norsu Bayawan-Sta. Catalina campus, and pumped several bullets on his window, grazing his stomach.
And now this.
Are we looking at a pattern here? Could the assailants in all these cases be one and the same person? Or did these three lawyers have something in common — a court case probably, that would put them in harm’s way.
We can ask so many questions and offer as many theories and possibilities. But eventually, this is a matter for the police to decide.
Surely, with their extensive intelligence network, they, too, could form their own theories, and back it up with evidence to secure not just a conviction, but justice.
The gunman, and most especially the mastermind, remain free as of this time. We could only join the chorus of Martinez’ friends and relatives in crying out for justice for this slain gentleman, and hope that the solution to this gruesome murder would be at hand.