INQUIRER.net Eleksyon 2007

Rivals: ‘Politics unlikely in murder of Quezon congress bet’

Southern Luzon Bureau

Delfin Mallari Jr.

LUCENA CITY -- Political opponents of slain Quezon congressional candidate Vicente “Butch” Rabaya Jr. doubted claims of the victim’s family that the killing was politically motivated.

Quezon Representative Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III (Liberal Party) and Board Member Narciso Malite (Lakas-CMD), both seeking the congressional seat in the province's fourth district, said in separate interviews that the family of the victim should just let the police finish their investigation before jumping to conclusions.

Malite urged the police to exert all efforts to finish their investigation as soon as possible “to end all these baseless political innuendoes.”

Tañada said the police should be the ones to figure out the “political angle theory” in their investigation.

“We really don’t know if it’s really political or just the result of Butch's business transactions in the past,” Tañada said in a phone interview.

Asked to elaborate, Tañada, citing information he claimed to have received, pointed to financial problems allegedly besetting Rabaya, including debts incurred when the victim ran and lost against the solon in 2004.

“It’s now up to the police to investigate the veracity of all these information,” Tañada said.

Senior Superintendent Victorio Caragan Jr., Quezon police director, said they were conducting an investigation on the Rabaya killing parallel to the one of the police in Quezon City, where the candidate’s body was found..

“We’re now in the process of collecting all valuable information about the victim to help the police investigators from Quezon City,” he said.

A Quezon police official told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net, that the political angle theory seemed remote.

“Mr. Rabaya had lots of enemies brought by his past…transactions…His…past is an open book in Quezon province, especially among the media. Marami siyang atraso [He had a lot of unsettled issues],” said the police official, who requested anonymity for not being authorized to speak on the matter to the press.

“Besides, based on the results of his previous candidacies, Rabaya’s political candidacy this time would not even pose a threat to his opponents. So, there was no need to kill him,” the police official claimed

Vicente Rabaya Sr., father of the slain politician, clarified that the political angle was just one of the theories political investigators are pursuing.

“But that theory is the biggest possibility. Who else will benefit from his untimely death except his political opponents?” he asked.

He refused to comment about his son’s pending cases in court.

The remains of the slain politician now lie in state in the coastal municipality of Atimonan, his hometown.

Rabaya was found dead inside a sport utility vehicle parked along the Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City after midnight Friday.

The elder Rabaya, in an interview hours after the killing, expressed belief that the slaying was “politically motivated.”

According to the victim’s father, his son was being targeted by hired guns in exchange for P5 million.

The younger Rabaya served as Quezon provincial board member from 1995 to 1998. He ran for governor in 1998 but lost to Governor Wilfrido Enverga.

In the 2001 and 2004 elections, Rabaya ran for congress but lost both times.

Rabaya had been intending to again seek the elusive congressional post in the May elections against Tañada and Malite.

The victim filed his certificate of candidacy under the Nationalist People’s Coalition on March 28.

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