JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Monday directed the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct a parallel investigation on the killing of barrio doctor Dreyfuss “Toto” Perlas in Kapatagan, Lanao del Norte last week.
In Department Order No. 141, Aguirre ordered the NBI to identify the killer of the volunteer doctor and determine the motive of the killing.
“The National Bureau of Investigation through Director Dant Gierran is hereby directed and granted authority to conduct investigation and case build-up over the death of Dr. Dreyfuss “Toto” Perlas who was shot dead in Lanao del Norte,” the DO stated.
Perlas, municipal health officer of Sapad town in the same province, was on board his motorcycle on his way home to Barangay Maranding last March 1 when two men riding a motorcycle fired at him. The doctor died of gunshot wound in the back.
Scene of the crime operatives recovered a bullet shell for a caliber .45 pistol at the scene.
Probers are looking into reports that prior to the attack, the doctor had an altercation with the relative of a patient at the Bontilao Country Hospital.
Perlas, native of Aklan, had been in Lanao del Norte province under the government’s Doctors to the Barrios program since 2012.
He worked to improve health services in the province and was nominated for the Bayani ng Kalusugan award and was hailed as one of the region’s top “health heroes.”
Meanwhile, Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Ubial appealed to authorities to protect our doctors and health workers and help them so they can serve the public better.
In a media briefing, Ubial lauded Perlas as “a rarity now in public health.” “Thus, it is of great loss to the health sector and the thousands of patients he could have continued to serve,” she said.
Ubial said a fund to assist public health workers would be set up and named after Perlas. She said the Department of Health employs 300 Doctors to the Barrios annually, or 5,000 since the program was started in 1994.
She said police investigators are looking at several motives for the murder of Perlas, including personal grudge. She also said a reward was put up for information that will lead to the arrest of his killer. With Macon Araneta