Friday, May 25, 2007 Makati deputy police chief shot dead
* He may have been assassinated: investigators
THE deputy chief of the Makati City police station was slain by still unidentified robbers in Quezon City while driving his passenger van on Wednesday night.
Superintendent Joven Bocalbos, 38, was shot and hit in the head during a robbery incident along Commonwealth Avenue at around 7:30 p.m.
Initial investigation showed that Bocalbos was driving his Nissan Urban with license plate number XED-744 when five of his 13 passengers declared a heist as the vehicle was nearing Fairview public market along Commonwealth Avenue.
One of the suspects took over the steering wheel while his four cohorts took the cash, cellular phones and valuables of the other passengers.
When the armed men found a handgun tucked in Bocalbos' waist, the robbers shot him in the head. They later commandeered the van that they left along Shaw Boulevard in Mandaluyong City.
The passengers brought Bocalbos to the M-Tech Hospital in Makati City where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Makati City Police Director Gilbert Cruz said Bocalbos usually plies the Quezon Avenue-Almar route every night before his 8 p.m. shift to earn a little extra cash.
Quezon City police are focusing on robbery as the motive of the killing but Southern Police District director Roberto Rosales said the men who killed Bacalbos could have been hired assassins rather than ordinary robbers.
Rosales said they are not discounting that possibility saying that they received reports that Bocalbos have made many enemies in his previous assignment.
Rosales said Bocalbos was previously detailed to the intelligence unit of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) and that the nature of his work might have earned him the ire of certain persons or groups.
He appealed to the public for help in identifying the suspects.
Makati City Police Director Gilbert Cruz said they are coordinating with the Quezon City police headed by Superintendent Magtanggol Gatdula in resolving the case.
Meanwhile, Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay conveyed his condolences to the family of the slain officer and called for a fast resolution of the case.
The 38-year-old Bocalbos, a member of Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) Class of 1991, had just assumed his post as deputy Makati City police chief last May 7.
Prior to his assignment in Makati, he was the chief of the Police Community Relations Unit of the Southern Police District.
He is survived by his wife and three children. (AH/Sunnex)
