MANILA, MAY 3, 2011 (MANILA TIMES) BY CRIS G. ODRONIA REPORTER - PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino 3rd ordered the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Sunday to "clamp down" the entire Samar province to prevent further violence following the assassination of Mayor Reynaldo Uy of Calbayog City.
Speaking to reporters after his breakfast meeting with labor leaders in Malacañang, President Aquino said that he also asked PNP Dir. Gen. Raul Bacalzo to ensure a speedy investigation of the killing.
"There is a tradition of violence in Samar province, so we have directed Dir. Gen. Raul Bacalzo to ensure that they clamp down the entire province to prevent [more] instances of violence," Mr. Aquino said.
"I pressed Raul Bacalzo to ensure a speedy investigation [and] the arrest of the people behind this dastardly act," he added.
Uy, who was an ally of Aquino in the Liberal Party, was shot dead by a still-unidentified gunman during a fiesta celebration in the province's Hinabangan town on Saturday night.
The attack also wounded provincial board member Eunice Babalcon.
Uy was brought to Saint Paul's Hospital where he was declared dead at about 1 a.m. on Sunday.
The President said that he does not want "this violence to be the precursor of even more violence," assuring residents of Samar that the police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines "will exert maximum efforts to ensure that the violence will be clamped down."
PNP spokesman Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz Jr., meanwhile, said that the special investigation task group (SITG)—SITG Uy—which Bacalzo had already formed in response to the President's instructions and which would be headed by Senior Supt. Edgar Basbas, would have the support and resources of the entire police force so as to solve the case at the soonest possible time.
The spokesman also said that the entire Samar regional police office has also been instructed to provide all the necessary support to the special task force and to ensure peace and order in the whole province.
"SITG Uy was immediately activated to spearhead and facilitate the investigation and resolution of the case," Cruz said.
According to him, a cartographic sketch of the lone suspect would soon be released and police tracker teams have also been formed to help in the manhunt. WITH REPORT FROM WILLIAM B. DEPASUPIL
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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