Panel to decide how and when P50-M Batocabe bounty will be distributed
Published Jan 7, 2019 05:23 pm
By Ben Rosario
A panel composed of contributors to the P50-million reward for the solution of the Batocabe-Diaz murders will have to be formed to decide the criteria that will be used when the unprecedented bounty would have to be given out.
AKO-Bicol Party-List Rep. Alfredo Garbin
(Photo courtesy of AKO-Bicol Party-List Rep. Alfredo Garbin via Facebook / MANILA BULLETIN) Ako Bicol Partylist Rep. Alfredo Garbin said the committee will have to be designated to make the decision as to whom the huge cash reward should be given. It will also determine when would be the right time to release the P50 million bounty. All six suspects, including the gunmen, are now in police custody, with at least four of them confessing their participation to the twin killings. Daraga Mayor Carlwyn Baldo, the alleged mastermind, remains at-large. Charges of double murder and six counts of frustrated murder have been filed against the seven suspects before office of the provincial prosecutor in Albay. Investigators cracked the case wide open when Emmanuel Bonita Judavar provided the police vital details and other information about the killings – reportedly from the planning stage to the actual execution of the crime. The Ako Bicol party-list was the first to offer a bounty for any information that could lead police investigators to the identification, arrest and prosecution of the gunmen, the mastermind and cohorts in the assassination of its Lower House representative Rodel Batocabe and his security escort, SPO1 Orlando Diaz. The party-list organization put up an initial P15 million in cash reward immediately after Batocabe and Diaz were gunned down shortly after attending a gift-giving party for senior citizens in Daraga last December 22. The provincial government of Albay headed by Gov. Al Francis Bichara then offered P2 million. Batocabe’s House colleagues, led by Negros Occidental Rep. Albee Benitez, launched a fund drive to attempt and were able to raise P13 million to round off the total cash reward to P30 million. During a visit to the wake of Batocabe in Albay, President Rodrigo Duterte pledged P20 million more. Except for Baldo, the six suspects involved in the crime are now under police custody. They are Rolando Arimado and Henry Yuzon, the alleged gunmen; Danilo Muella, Christopher Naval, Emmanuel Rosello and Jaywin Babor, Police have confirmed the Batocabe family’s suspicion that local politics was the motive behind the congressman’s murder. The slain lawmaker, who was on his third and final term as party-list representative, was eyeing the mayoralty of Daraga, which was also to be contested by Baldo and Vice Mayor Victor Perete. Batocabe, a mayoralty bet of the National People’s Coalition, was reportedly leading all poll surveys at the time he was killed, revealed Garbin.
AKO-Bicol Party-List Rep. Alfredo Garbin(Photo courtesy of AKO-Bicol Party-List Rep. Alfredo Garbin via Facebook / MANILA BULLETIN) Ako Bicol Partylist Rep. Alfredo Garbin said the committee will have to be designated to make the decision as to whom the huge cash reward should be given. It will also determine when would be the right time to release the P50 million bounty. All six suspects, including the gunmen, are now in police custody, with at least four of them confessing their participation to the twin killings. Daraga Mayor Carlwyn Baldo, the alleged mastermind, remains at-large. Charges of double murder and six counts of frustrated murder have been filed against the seven suspects before office of the provincial prosecutor in Albay. Investigators cracked the case wide open when Emmanuel Bonita Judavar provided the police vital details and other information about the killings – reportedly from the planning stage to the actual execution of the crime. The Ako Bicol party-list was the first to offer a bounty for any information that could lead police investigators to the identification, arrest and prosecution of the gunmen, the mastermind and cohorts in the assassination of its Lower House representative Rodel Batocabe and his security escort, SPO1 Orlando Diaz. The party-list organization put up an initial P15 million in cash reward immediately after Batocabe and Diaz were gunned down shortly after attending a gift-giving party for senior citizens in Daraga last December 22. The provincial government of Albay headed by Gov. Al Francis Bichara then offered P2 million. Batocabe’s House colleagues, led by Negros Occidental Rep. Albee Benitez, launched a fund drive to attempt and were able to raise P13 million to round off the total cash reward to P30 million. During a visit to the wake of Batocabe in Albay, President Rodrigo Duterte pledged P20 million more. Except for Baldo, the six suspects involved in the crime are now under police custody. They are Rolando Arimado and Henry Yuzon, the alleged gunmen; Danilo Muella, Christopher Naval, Emmanuel Rosello and Jaywin Babor, Police have confirmed the Batocabe family’s suspicion that local politics was the motive behind the congressman’s murder. The slain lawmaker, who was on his third and final term as party-list representative, was eyeing the mayoralty of Daraga, which was also to be contested by Baldo and Vice Mayor Victor Perete. Batocabe, a mayoralty bet of the National People’s Coalition, was reportedly leading all poll surveys at the time he was killed, revealed Garbin.