GMA orders NBI to join Punzalan slay probe

President Arroyo ordered yesterday the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to join the Philippine National Police (PNP) in the investigation of the assassination of Quezon Rep. Marcial Punzalan Jr.

Mrs. Arroyo ordered NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco to bolster the police probe after Punzalan’s widow Lynette, the leading candidate for the seat to be vacated by her husband, appealed for the President’s help in finding justice for her slain husband.

Mrs. Punzalan made the appeal when the President visited yesterday morning the wake of the slain legislator at the Santuario de San Antonio at Forbes Park in Makati City.

The lawmaker was shot dead by six assassins on May 11 at the Tiaong, Quezon town plaza where he had just arrived to attend his wife’s miting de avance, or final campaign sortie.

The initial police report tagged the assassins as members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) Melito Glor Command, headed by Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal.

In a statement sent to news organizations later on the day of the killing, the NPA Melito Glor Command claimed responsibility for killing Punzalan for alleged "crimes against the people."

But Mrs. Punzalan told the President her family does not believe that the NPA killed her husband for "crimes against the people" since he was well-loved in the province.

She said the NPA was also tagged in the assassination of her father-in-law, Marcial Sr., but the Punzalan family never found out what his alleged "crimes against the people" were.

Mrs. Punzalan said both killings were likely instigated by political opponents who hired communist hit men to kill both Punzalans.

In a separate interview, PNP chief Director General Leandro Mendoza affirmed the possibility that Punzalan’s political rivals may have hired NPA hit men to liquidate the lawmaker.

"We have some witnesses who were pinpointing the NPA as the killers and even the Melito Glor Command has already owned up to the crime but who ordered the killing is another angle we have to look into," Mendoza said.

"My husband was well-loved by the people of Quezon province. We do not believe the NPA is behind the killing. Prior to his death and before the election, we were even campaigning in the mountains and nothing happened to him," Mrs. Punzalan said.

She asked for NBI assistance because she found it strange that the assassins could be so bold when several policemen were present at the town plaza at the time of the killing.

She also requested the NBI to provide her family additional security because they are starting to receive death threats.

Mrs. Punzalan leads the race for Quezon’s second district congressional seat ahead of former Philippine Coconut Authority administrator Eduardo Escueta, a close ally of former executive secretary and senatorial candidate Edgardo Angara.

"Some people in Quezon have advised me to be cautious because I have not been proclaimed and something might happen to me," she said.

Wycoco said the NBI was not in a position to provide security but assured the agency will look into the police’s initial autopsy report and into the report that several policemen were at the scene when Punzalan was slain.

"We will do that in coordination with the PNP’s parallel investigation. Along the way, we will compare notes and findings," Wycoco said.

"There are some (names of) personalities coming out but we will only reveal their names after the investigation. We will summon them but we will have to find out first. We will ascertain if they were involved," he said.