THE PNP said a special investigation task group (SITG) is pursuing “promising leads” in last Thursday’s shooting and wounding of a tabloid photographer in Quezon City.
Three relatives of Remate photographer Joshua Abiad were also injured in the attack. One of them, four-year-old Reezee Abiad, died yesterday.
“They are already looking at possible suspects and our investigators are pursuing promising leads,” Brig. Gen. Redrico Maranan, chief of the PNP’s Public Information Office, said in a radio interview yesterday.
Maranan, who is also the focal person of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFMOS), declined to elaborate so as not to compromise the ongoing probe.
Quezon City Police District Director Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre announced last Saturday the creation of the SITG Abiad to bring justice to Abiad and his family.
Abiad and his family members were aboard a sports utility vehicle last Thursday afternoon when a gunman alighted from a car in the opposite direction and opened fire. The incident was caught on closed-circuit television.
Citing information from Torre, Maranan said investigators are looking into possible motives that were established based on evidence gathered so far.
“For now, we don’t want to make public the motives because it may preempt the result of our investigation and it may alert the people who are responsible,” said Maranan, adding: “All resources of the QCPD will be utilized to solve the case as soon as possible.”
Maranan also said the PNP has assigned police personnel to secure Abiad and his family.
PTMOS executive Paul Gutierrez earlier said Abiad is a witness to drug cases being handled by the PNP and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
Torre said investigators are looking at three angles, including personal grudge. He declined to further elaborate.
“We already have pieces of evidence, we have forensic evidence and CCTV (footage),” said Torre.
