Monday, April 02, 2007 Arroyo wants killing of Congress bet solved soon
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered authorities to solve the killing of Quezon province congressional bet Vicente Rabaya Jr. as fast as the police solved the murder of Abra Representative Luis Bersamin Jr. last month.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said a special team had already been formed to look into the death of Rabaya whose body was found inside an abandoned vehicle in Quezon City.
Bunye, who is also the Presidential spokesman, said the President sent her sympathies to the family of Rabaya, a member of the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) Party, and assures them that a relentless manhunt for the perpetrators' arrest would be done.
"This kind of violence shows that much is yet to be done to reform our political culture, which is one of the platform issues of the administration. While speedy criminal justice is the best means to show that we mean business, we must also modernize our democratic institutions and values, cut fraud and tone down the heat of power play at all levels," he said.
He said the President also directed the PNP to intensify its police visibility, deployment of mobile checkpoints to interdict loose guns and muster total community participation "to bear down on electoral violence".
Bunye said President Arroyo wants to make sure that political stability would be as "straight and steady as our economic stability".
"The government will apply the full force of the law against all groups and individuals who are employing threat and intimidation to undermine suffrage and free choice," he added.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said authorities must immediately attend to the killing of Rabaya as they do not want this incident to set a trend of election-related violence in the country.
Ermita also dismissed possibilities that Malacañang may be involved in the incident after an identification card supposedly belonging to an employee from the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Intelligence was found in the vehicle where the body of Rabaya was found.
He said there is no such office in Malacañang and all intelligence work and units are under the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (Nica), PNP and Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (Isafp).
He also denied knowledge of a certain Aforque Pa is employed in Malacañang. He said politics maybe the reason behind efforts to link Malacañang to the incident.
Rabaya's body, which sustained a gunshot wound in the head and abdomen, was found inside a white Toyota Fortuner with license plate ZDW-656 past midnight Saturday. Also found inside the vehicle were licenses for several firearms, the ID of Pa, and several pieces of women's lingerie inside a shopping bag. (JMR/Sunnex)
