Should I manage the table unlock in case of an error in php (try/catch)? Or the lock is automatically released by PDO object ad the end of the script?
Yes. Unless you're using a persistent connection, on the scripts's termination PDO will close the connection, and mysql, in turn will release all locks:
PHP will automatically close the connection when your script ends.
http://php.net/manual/en/pdo.connections.phpIf the connection for a client session terminates, whether normally or abnormally, the server implicitly releases all table locks held by the session (transactional and nontransactional).
https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/lock-tables.html