A Manila City inquest fiscal, on board his red Toyota Yaris, was gunned down in broad day light Tuesday, July 7, 2020, just before noon along Quirino Avenue in Paco district.
The Manila Police District has yet to identify the killers of Jovencio Senados, 62, married, senior assistant prosecutor and resident of Block 53, Lot 19, Villa Palao, Banli, Calamba City.
The suspects peppered with bullets his car around 11:05 a.m. along Quirino Avenue, near corner Anakbayan Street, Barangay 686, Zone 75, District 5. The suspects escaped by maneuvering their black sports utility vehicle (plate number AVG 8133) toward Taft Avenue.
Senados together with Felipe Bagares, a nephew and driver, was on their way to the Manila City Hall when a Toyota Innova and a black Montero Sports Utility Vehicle started swerving side by side with their sedan.
The SUV, with slightly opened windows, tried first to overtake the Yaris before firing at the target.
Senados died of multiple gunshot wounds while Bagares was unharmed.
Lt. Col. Ariel Caramoan, commander of the Ermita Police Station, said his men have launched an intensive search to identify the suspects.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice vowed to go after the killers of Senados.
“We condemn this to the highest level. We avail of all resources of the DoJ to obtain justice,” said Prosecutor General Benedicto Malcontento.
“We are shocked by the audacity of this attack,” added Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra.
“It highlights once again the grave peril that our prosecutors face each day in the discharge of their duties,” he said.
The Justice chief said he had ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct an in-depth probe.
Senados was facing an investigation by the DoJ in connection with the murder of Batuan, Masbate vice mayor, Charlie Yuson III.
Yuson was murdered in Manila last October 9, 2019; it was Senados who ordered the release of the four suspected gunmen who were apprehended by the MPD right after the incident, “for further investigation.”
The Yuson family had filed murder and frustrated murder cases against Sandra Cam, her son, Marco Martin and several of their supporters over his killing.
Sandra Cam, currently a member of the board of directors of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, is a political rival of the Yusons in Masbate.
Cam’s son, Marco Martin, lost in the 2019 Batuan mayoral election against Yuson’s son, Charmax Jan Yuson.
Charmax regained his seat as Batuan mayor last month after the cases filed against him by the police for illegal possession of firearms and explosives were dismissed by the Masbate Regional Trial Court.
A police investigator who asked not to be identified said it would be too early to say that the killing of Senados had something to do with the quarrel between the camps of Cam and the Yusons (Report by Go Mandino/Photo by Crismon Heramis).