Feb 102013
 
At least two offices in Malacañang are now reviewing the findings of the National Bureau of Investigation on the shooting incident that killed 13 people in Atimonan, Quezon last Jan. 6.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said President Benigno Aquino III wants the review to be more thorough than speedy.

“Gusto ng pangulo, thorough at exhaustive ang pagtingin kesa i-sacrifice natin ang quality for speed,” she said on government-run dzRB radio.

The findings are now in the offices of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and chief presidential legal counsel Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, she said.

In the meantime, she appealed to the public for patience while the two offices conduct their study.

“I’m sure our officials are getting on with that study,” she said.

Aquino earlier tasked the NBI to probe the incident, which police initially said was a shootout between them and members of a criminal gang engaged in gun-for-hire activities.

But an investigation was triggered after it was found that some of the fatalities had included an environmentalist.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima had also said earlier that the evidence gathered so far indicated what happened was not a shootout. — LBG, GMA News