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Manila Bulletin

Philippines

North Cotabato town offers P400,000 bounty over spate of killings

Philippines

North Cotabato town offers P400,000 bounty over spate of killings

By Philippine News Agency

PIKIT, North Cotabato (PNA) – The local government has offered a P400,000 reward for anyone who can provide information that would lead to the identification and arrest of the perpetrators behind the recent killing of a 13-year-old student and tricycle driver here.

POLICE man a checkpoint in Pikit, North Cotabato. (Pikit LGU FB)

Mayor Sumulong Sultan said on Monday, Feb. 20, the amount will hopefully help fast-track the arrest of the suspects behind the series of killings in the town.

“We need your help, we need everybody’s help to stop all these killings,” Sultan told members of the Municipal Peace and Order Council (MPOC) and residents.

Sultan said the MPOC approved the P400,000 bounty, of which P200,000 will go to anyone who can help identify the killers of the 13-year-old student here on Feb. 14 and another P200,000 to help solve the killing of tricycle driver Jose Neri Gonzales a day earlier.

He urged those with information to come forward and provide evidence to police to help solve these cases.

In addition, the mayor said the town council passed a resolution banning motorcycle backriders and that the police will implement a no riding-in-tandem policy.

An additional two companies of soldiers have been deployed to help the police contain the surge of gun attacks in the town in recent months.

The Police Regional Office in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (PRO-BAR) said it is ready to deploy more police personnel to Pikit.

Classes in all public and private schools on resumed Monday after the local chief executive cancelled classes last week in the aftermath of the killings.

More police personnel have been deployed near schools.

Since last year, at least 40 people have been killed in this town and not a single case has been resolved so far.

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