Investigators check CCTV, tap witness in Manila prosecutor slay

Investigators will use surveillance footage and a material witness for leads into the fatal shooting of Manila's chief inquest prosecutor in broad daylight, police said Wednesday.

Jovencio Senados, 62, was on board his car when assailants in a black SUV gunned him down along Quirino Highway corner Anakbayan Street in Paco, Manila before Tuesday noon, investigators earlier said.

The prosecutor's driver, who had been working for Senados for 2 years, was unharmed. Authorities will question him on whether or not the victim got death threats before the attack, said Manila police chief Brig. Gen. Rolando Miranda.

The driver earlier told investigators that he noticed 2 vehicles that had followed the victim from his home in Calamba, Laguna, Miranda said.

Police will attempt to track the 2 vehicles' movement through CCTV footage, he said.
 
Aside from Senados, 49 other lawyers, prosecutors and judges were killed in attacks related to their work during President Rodrigo Duterte's administration, said National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL) president Edre Olalia.

A total of 248 human rights defenders, legal professionals, journalists and trade unionists were killed in the Philippines between 2015 and 2019, according to a recent report by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights.

Watch Miranda's interview here.

Teleradyo, July 8, 2020