The father and supporters of a former board member of Rizal town are crying for justice after he was killed by unknown assailants on July 6 in San Pablo City in Laguna.
The victim, Jeffrey Palce, was laid to rest in Rizal on Sunday. Approximately hundreds of people attended his funeral, most of them dressed in green and white, some holding a tarpaulin that read “Justice for the Honor of Rizal.”
This is also the call of Iluminado Palce, the victim’s father, who himself asked for help from President Rodrigo Duterte.
Palce’s acquaintances and supporters, on the other hand, demanded justice for him by calling and changing his profile picture on his social media account.
One of the viewed angles of Palce’s murder was politics.
“Isa po yan sa tinitingnan, politics, kung related po ba sa trabaho or tinitingnan natin kung may negosyo ba itong victim maaring maging motives. Sa ngayon, wala pang definite motives lahat ay kinukuha pa rin natin yung information,” said Police Lt. Col Chitadel Gaoiran, spokesperson of Laguna PPO.
(That is one of the things we look at, politics, whether it is related to work or whether we look at whether this victim has a business, it can be motives. But, so far, there are no definite motives. We are still getting the information.)
Father of slain Laguna ex-board member seeks justice
Palce served as Sangguniang Kabataan federation president in Rizal and ex-officio member from 1997 to 2002.
He was also a municipal councilor, president of the Philippine Councilor League – Laguna Chapter, and ex-officio member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan from 2013 to 2016.
Marlon Solquia, who was his running-mate as mayor of Rizal in the 2019 election, would have run again in the 2022 elections.
Rizal Mayor Vener Muñoz condemned the killing.
In an interview, PNP Calabarzon regional director Eliseo Cruz said they would conduct crossmatching of evidence obtained at the crime scene and other crimes to identify the culprit.
The PNP has formed the Special Investigation Task Group Palce to focus on the ongoing investigation into the case.
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