N. Samar prov’l lawyer shot dead in Catarman
CATARMAN, Northern Samar — The provincial legal officer of this province, Atty. Eduardo Potot, was shot to death around 5 o’clock Monday afternoon, December 14, at the gate of his rented house in Brgy. Dalakit, this town.
Potot was said to have just arrived from his office at the provincial capitol which is a walking distance to his house, when the shooting occurred.
According to the victim’s neighbors, they saw Potot arriving in his black owner type jeep and even heard him honking the horn of his car for someone to open the gate. Later they heard four to five gunshots, then saw two men jogging away from the area.
No one among the neighbors claimed to have seen the actual shooting. Potot was sprawled lifeless near their gate when the responding police team and the Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) arrived at the area.
The killers were said to have immediately fled from the scene of the crime.
The police recovered from the crime scene an undetermined number of empty shells of caliber 9mm and cal. .45 bullets.
Sr. Insp. Nicasio San Antonio, deputy chief of police in Catarman, who was among the first to respond to the incident, told Leyte Samar Daily Express that the victim might have alighted from his car to open the gate himself when the armed men shot him at close range.
“Baka bumaba siya para buksan ang gate, then doon siya nilapitan at binaril…,” San Antonio said. The victim bore multiple gunshot wounds in the head.
Daza orders quick probe on lawyer’s assassination
Meanwhile, Governor Raul Daza of this province expressed his condemnation on the recent killing here victimizing lawyer Eduardo Potot, appointed provincial legal officer of Northern Samar .
Daza was in Manila when Potot was shot by unidentified gunmen late afternoon of Monday, December 14 at the gate of his rented house in Barangay Dalakit, this town, just a walking distance from the victim’s office at the provincial capitol building.
In a telephone interview with LSDE, Gov. Daza said he was informed about the incident an hour after the killing. He said he immediately called up Northern Samar provincial police director, Sr. Supt. Eusebio Mejos, to “personally” investigate the incident.
“I told him (Mejos) to personally investigate this case himself… do every means to identify and arrest Attorney Potot’s killers and bring them to the courts,” Daza said.
Police authorities have yet to establish on what could be the motive on the killing of the Northern Samar legal officer, a position he has held for six years until his murder last Monday.
In another phone interview with Leyte Samar Daily Express, Daza ruled out any political angle on the murder of his legal officer.
“He was not involved in any political (activities),” he said.
Potot was appointed as head of the provincial legal office immediately after Daza assumed his first term as governor of this province in 2001. The victim was known to be “very close” to the governor, having worked as Daza’s legal assistant while the latter was still congressman of the first district here.
Only on October 3 this year, Governor Daza’s younger brother, businessman Manuel “Manolo” Daza, was killed by five armed men inside a cockpit in Rosario town of this province.
Daza said he could not say if Potot’s assassination is connected with the killing of his brother.
“I can not say at this point if this has any link to the death of my brother. I have no evidence yet,” he said. The governor added that Potot had no enemy that he could suspect to have any motive to kill the provincial attorney.
Last September 6, Catholic priest and human rights advocate Fr. Cecilio Lucero was also murdered by a group of armed men while he was traversing the Maharlika Highway in San Jose town.
While police authorities have yet to identify and charge those responsible for the death of the governor’s brother, at least five individuals – Jerry D. Espera and four John Does — were charged with murder on the Lucero case.
The murders of Lucero and that of the governor’s brother prompted the Commission on Human Rights to conduct a public inquiry last November 19 as it was alarmed on the increasing and unsolved cases of extra-legal killings.
By RACHEL V. ARNAIZ, JOEY A. GABIETA & MIRIAM G. DESACADA
Correspondent Staff writer Staff writer
(http://leytesamardaily.com/)
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