Former NBI chief Velasco dies

(Updated 6:38 p.m.) Former National Bureau of Investigation chief Epimaco Velasco died of a heart attack Monday morning. He was 78.

Velasco was rushed to Divine Grace Medical Center in General Trias, Cavite Sunday, a member of the hospital staff confirmed to GMA News Online. No other details were provided as the attending physician was already off-duty.

Velasco served the NBI from July 1992 to March 1995. He, then, ran and won as Cavite governor in 1995. Three years later, he was named by former President Joseph Estrada as Interior and Local Government secretary.

In January 2007, Velasco was named by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as acting member of the board of directors of the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA).

Velasco was the father of Cavite Chief Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco, who died of heart attack in May 2013. — Amita Legaspi/BM, GMA News