Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Oscar Albayalde on Wednesday said officers from the Central Visayas police office will be "automatically relieved" if they failed to solve the ambush in Talisay City that resulted in the death of San Fernando municipality mayor's husband and two others within two weeks.

In a forum in Manila, Albayalde said he instructed the provincial director of Cebu and Talisay City police chief to solve the case in two weeks.

On Tuesday evening, San Fernando Mayor Neneth Reluya was ambushed at Brgy. Linao in Talisay City. She and two others were injured while her husband and two more died on the spot.

"We (will) really intensify our investigation. We can't do anything about it, it already happened but still we investigate. And I have (given) the provincial director and chief of police there two weeks to solve this case," he said.

"They will be relieved automatic. I will put somebody there to investigate it further and I also directed the director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG to handle this case," he added.

Citing the investigation they conducted on the AKO Bicol Partylist representative Rodel Batocabe slay, Albayalde said the Central Visayas police region should work in solving this investigation.

"Remember the Batocabe (case), we worked on it less than 2 weeks. If you will really work on it you can if you focus on one thing. If you will use your fertile imagination and initiative, this is what we want to happen," he said.

The PNP chief said one of the motives they are looking at incident is "politics".

"Accordingly, our angle here is one on the politics, although the mayor believed this incident is politically motivated. So we are looking into it," Albayalde said.

He said they created a special investigation task group.

"So far, they still don't have leads or even persons of interest. There on the process of getting CCTv footage in the area," he said.

Albayalde said they ‘’will validate and deliberate’’ whether they will include the area on their election watchlist.

"We can include it as election watchlist of area but not necessarily under Comelec (Commission on Elections) control because they are the one to decide whether the area should be placed under Comelec control or not," he said. Ella Dionisio/DMS