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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Ozamiz City fiscal killed; NBI steps in

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The Justice department said Thursday it had ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to probe the killing of retired Ozamiz prosecutor Geronimo Marabe Jr. and to bring his killers to justice.

 “I have directed the NBI to investigate this latest attack. The DoJ will not take these violent incidents sitting down,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said in a text message.

 “Let us remain hopeful that the truth will be revealed and the perpetrators will be made to suffer the consequences of their treacherous act.”

In Quezon City, Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte on Thursday urged the police to protect prosecutors and other court officials from “evil forces.”

She reacted to the murder of the city’s Deputy City Prosecutor Rogelio Velasco who was shot and killed while driving along Holy Spirit Drive to pick up his wife from work at 4:55 pm on May 11.

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Belmonte said the police should step up their efforts to stop the rising number of armed attacks on prosecutors, judges and lawyers not only in Quezon City but in the entire country.

 “They should have a security plan, at least, to protect these men and women of the court,” Belmonte said.

Marabe was shot dead by four unidentified assailants while he was driving his car in a village in Ozamis City on Tuesday.

Marabe had served as a public prosecutor for several cases involving the Parojinog drug cartel in Ozamiz City.

On May 17, Guevarra expressed support for the proposal to provide bullet-proof vests to state prosecutors and to arm them, though he said they could not do it easily because of budgetary constraints.

Earlier, Prosecutor General Jorge Catalan Jr., head of the National Prosecution Service, condemned the attack and said the arming of prosecutors was necessary to defend themselves from violence.

He said the series of killings targeting prosecutors had raised concerns about their safety. 

Catalan said Marabe was the 14th prosecutor to be killed in the country in the past 26 years.

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