{"id":194971,"date":"2018-12-23T02:58:18","date_gmt":"2018-12-23T07:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=194971"},"modified":"2018-12-23T02:58:18","modified_gmt":"2018-12-23T07:58:18","slug":"palace-condemns-slay-of-ako-bicol-rep-rodel-batocabe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/12\/23\/palace-condemns-slay-of-ako-bicol-rep-rodel-batocabe\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace condemns slay of Ako Bicol Rep. Rodel Batocabe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Secretary Salvador Panelo\u2019s Press Briefing (Photo screengrabbed from PCOO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang condemned the killing of Ako Bicol Rep. Rodel Batocabe and his police escort, SPO1 Orlando Diaz, in Albay on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe denounce the senseless killing of Ako Bicol Rep. Rodel Batocabe in Albay this afternoon,\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Panelo said Malaca\u00f1ang expressed condolences to Batocabe\u2019s family and colleagues in the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Palace likewise expresses its deep condolences to his bereaved family, his loved ones, as well as his friends and colleagues in Congress during this moment of great grief,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Panelo, meanwhile, assured that authorities are investigating Batocabe\u2019s murder and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.<\/p>\n

Philippine National Police Director General Chief Oscar Alayalde echoed the Palace\u2019s statement and is set to form a special investigation task group to probe the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have directed the creation of a Special Investigation Task Group to mobilise all available resources and to orchestrate all aspects of investigation to ensure that justice is served as soon as possible to both the victims and their families,\u201d Albayalde said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Albayalde also appealed to the public to report to the police any information that could point them to the perpetrators and help solve the case.<\/p>\n

Like Panelo, he also expressed sympathy to Batocabe\u2019s family and vowed to get to the bottom of the incident.<\/p>\n

Batocabe was running for mayor of Daraga in next year\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Reports showed that Batocabe was shot by a still unidentified suspect around 3 p.m. while attending a gift-giving event for senior citizens and persons with disabilities in Barangay Burgos in Daraga, Albay.<\/p>\n

Batocabe and his escort were brought to a nearby hospital in Legazpi City but were later pronounced dead.<\/p>\n

According to his partylist website, Batocabe was Vice Chairman of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, and member of the House Electoral Tribunal, Joint Congressional Power Commission, Health, Games and Amusement, Justice, Ways and Means, Energy, Natural Resources, Legislative Franchises, Housing and Urban Development, Tourism, and Transportation.\u00a0(with reports from Christopher Lloyd Caliwan\/PNA)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang condemned the killing of Ako Bicol Rep. Rodel Batocabe and his police escort, SPO1 Orlando Diaz, in Albay …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":185453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}