Police suspect that the murder of lawyer Baby Maria Concepcion Landero-Ole in Danao City, Cebu, may be linked to her late husband’s involvement in the drug trade.

Danao City police chief Major Theresa Macatangay told Rappler that Landero-Ole’s murder “cannot be distanced” from the involvement of her late husband, Wanito Flores Ole, in the drug trade.

The husband was gunned down on May 26 in Danao City, months after he was released from the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) where he served time for a drug case.

Macatangay said that sometime in June, Landero-Ole told investigators handling her husband’s murder that she had received death threats from “a certain personality” inside the Bilibid “who had connections or relationships with her husband’s activities.”

“I think this is not about her profession as a lawyer. I think it would be a disservice to the legal profession if we are going to focus on that because actually, the weight tilts more on her relationship with her  husband who was doing unscrupulous business and who [had] made friends inside NBP with questionable individuals in the same trade,” Macatangay told Rappler.

When asked, the police chief confirmed that Landero-Ole had been handling several drug-related killings prior to her husband’s murder. 

Landero-Ole was shot by unidentified gunmen on Thursday afternoon, Deember 17, as she drove along the national highway in Danao City. She was rushed to the hospital but was declared dead upon arrival. 

The police have yet to receive a copy of the autopsy report but they initially identified two gunshot wounds sustained by the lawyer: one in the head and another in the neck. 

Macatangay said that they recovered 5 bullet shells from the crime scene. 

Following Macatangay’s statement that the lawyer’s death may not be job-related, National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) president Edre Olalia said that regardless of whether or not the shooting was related to Landero-Ole’s profession, it is the duty of the police to prevent killings from happening. 

“The problem is that credibility and integrity of police investigations need to level up,” Olalia said.

“In any case, whether related to her being a lawyer or not, her brazen murder remains unacceptable and the police should be responsible that these killings which are happening brazenly and frequently should not happen in our streets in the first place. It does not diminish that the state helped in a sense pull[ed] the trigger,” he added. – Rappler.com