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Saturday, March 11, 2006
Council urges speedy resolution of mayor's murder
ISABELA CITY -- The City Council here is calling on the police and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to immediately solve the March 3 gun-slaying of the late Mayor Luis Biel II.
Councilors held an urgent session Thursday and passed a resolution urging the police's Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and NBI to conduct a joint probe on Biel's death.
Residents of the city, meanwhile, dramatized their silent protest for the assassination of their mayor by lighting candles in houses and along city streets Friday night.
Black ribbons were also displayed in conspicuous areas in the city to show mourning for the untimely passing of the mayor.
The late mayor's casket was moved Friday morning from his residence to the City hall lobby for viewing by the public.
His remains will be interred Saturday at the family gravesite in Sunrise Village, Isabela City.
The Biels still refused to make any statement over the mayor's death.
Police are also said to have imposed a news blackout on the incident, sources who attended Biel's wake said.
A relative of the Biel family said the widow is willing to issue her statement after Saturday's interment.
Sources said Biel's wife Delia, whose parents are natives of Zamboanga City, is reportedly angry at the alleged laxity by security forces that guarded her husband who had been under threat.
An army officer sent by his superior to extend their condolences was reportedly berated by the grieving widow.
A police officer was not spared either, and was lambasted for allegedly being remiss in his duty to secure the entourage of the late city mayor.
Biel was serving his third and last term when he was gunned down by a "suicide" assassin inside the City hall compound while he was about to leave his office in the ground complex at past noon the other Friday.
Four of his own bodyguards were hurt in the gun attack. His assailant was in turn shot to death by his other guards. The lone gunman was later identified as Gabir Gani, 27, a third year college student of Basilan State College.
The .38 revolver he used in attacking the late mayor allegedly belongs to a policeman assigned at the Philippine National Police provincial headquarters in this city.
The cop is reportedly under restriction at the provincial headquarters. His wife is the sister of the slain suicide killer. (Sun.Star Zamboanga/Sunnex)
(March 11, 2006 issue)
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