Task force formed to probe shooting of former Quezon town mayor

LUCENA CITY – – A special task force has been formed by the Quezon Police Provincial Office to solve the attempted killing of the former mayor of Pagbilao. Police Colonel Audie Madrideo, Quezon provincial police director, activated the Special Investigation Task Group (SITG)-Portes as he strongly condemned the attack on  Romeo  Portes, 73, last November 24. “The Quezon PPO will strive through its available resources to identify the suspects and put them behind bars,” Madrideo said in a statement released by the QPPO public information office Thursday afternoon. Portes, who is the father of incumbent Mayor Shierre Ann Portes–Palicpic, was shot in front of a family-owned building in Barangay Bukal  Tuesday afternoon. After disembarking from a motorcycle being driven by his cohort, the gunman wearing a face mask, casually walked towards Portes, pulled a handgun from his pocket and shot the victim on his face at close range. The incident was recorded by a closed-circuit television camera. CCTV footage showed that the gunman and the driver of the motorcycle were circling the building prior to the attack. On Thursday morning, the motorcycle was found abandoned in Barangay Ikirin, also in Pagbilao, some 3 kilometers away from the crime scene. The incumbent mayor has not issued any public statement about her father’s shooting, which also happened on the eve of the town’s fiesta celebration. Portes was last listed in stable condition.

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