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JUDGE MURDER Funeral service workers remove the body of Court Clerk Amador Rebato Jr. from Manila City Hall Wednesday. Police said Rebato, a lawyer, shot and killed Chief Judge Ma. Theresa Abadilla, of Section 45 of the Regional Court of First Instance, later committed suicide in her office on the fifth floor of the building. (Photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines – A presiding judge at the Manila Regional Court of First Instance (RTC) was shot to death by the court clerk, who later committed suicide, inside his chamber at Manila City Hall on Wednesday, police said.
Judge Ma. Theresa Abadilla, 44, of RTC Branch 45, was pronounced dead upon arrival at the Manila Medical Center, said Captain Henry Navarro, head of the homicide section of the Manila Police District (MPD).
A police report said that the court clerk, 42-year-old attorney Amador Rebato Jr., committed suicide and his body was found in the office.
Citing eyewitness accounts, the police report said that Rebato pulled out his firearm, a 9mm pistol, and shot Abadilla in the head at 2:45 p.m. inside the judge’s chamber in room 535 on the fifth. floor of the Manila City Hall.
‘Unfavorable’ performance
Abadilla was having a “conversation” with Rebato about his “unfavorable” job performance prior to the shooting, Lieutenant Colonel Arsenio Riparip, chief of the City’s Security Force, said in a report to Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso.
A court clerk is hired to record all decisions in court proceedings, schedule hearings and trials, and assist court officials.
According to the police report, the court’s legal investigator Juanito Reyes said that Rebato had performed poorly since being diagnosed with COVID-19 and that he planned to resign.
Rebato was “restless” and “shaking” as the judge questioned him about his work, according to the report. Later, he shot Abadilla in the head “without hesitation,” he added.
Video footage shows Abadilla being pulled out of Manila City Hall in an office chair before being transferred to an emergency vehicle by the MPD’s Special Mayor’s Reaction Team.
Major Rosalino Ibay Jr., the team leader, said Abadilla was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital 30 minutes after the shooting. Rebato shot himself with his own firearm, Ibay said later in a telephone interview.
Rebato’s body was still in the office in the late afternoon when investigators gathered evidence, Navarro said.
—With a report from Consuelo Márquez, INQUIRER.net
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