The Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has identified the suspects in the Thursday killing of a woman-lawyer in Abra.
Meanwhile, the Abra Provincial Police Office called on those who could help identify or locate the perpetrators behind the murder of lawyer Maria Saniata Liwliwa Alzate to coordinate with the authorities.
“We already have suspects. The NBI is on top of this,” Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, said in a radio interview.
Alzate was in her Mitsubishi Mirage car parked in front of her house along Santiago Street in Barangay Zone 3 when she was shot several times at close range
Alzate suffered eight gunshot wounds and was declared dead on arrival at the Seares Memorial Hospital.
Remulla said the NBI launched a parallel probe and was looking at footage of closed-circuit television cameras at the crime scene.
The DOJ condemned the killing, which it described as “unacceptable.”
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. said the special investigation task group created to probe the killing has obtained strong leads on the suspects.
During a news forum in Quezon City, Acorda reported that the investigation was “moving in the right direction.”
He said however, it was still premature to link Alzate’s murder to the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections since she was involved with human rights concerns.
In a radio interview, Abra police spokesman Capt. Ronaldo Eslabra said the motive behind Alzate’s murder was still being established while the suspects remained at large.
Based on the CCTV footage and videos, someone would have known the perpetrators if they were from here. But until now, no one has commented or at least pointed us to them,” Eslabra said.
Two men riding a motorcycle in tandem reportedly shot Alzate dead while she was attending to her car in front of their house in Bangued, Abra.
According to Eslabra, the police are now backtracking based on the CCTV footage to know where the perpetrators came from.
“We are calling on our citizens to help solve this crime,” Eslabra said.
Malacañang, meanwhile, said it would ensure that law enforcement agencies ‘’will work relentlessly to bring to justice those behind this heinous act.”
A special investigation task group has also been created to look into the slaying.