No takers? PNP pays P9.2 M for fugitives' arrest; P20 M bounty for Atong Ang still up for grabs
Twenty-one people received around P9.2 million as payment for the information they shared that resulted in the arrest of wanted fugitives.
But any of them could receive an even higher reward, a whopping P20 million actually, for the right person—and that right person for the Philippine National Police (PNP) is businessman Charlie “Atong” Ang.
And the probability of getting that big sum of money is still high because according to PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio C. Nartatez, Jr., Ang is still in the country based on the latest intelligence report they received.
“The last known place that he went to was still here in the Philippines,” Nartatez told reporters during the ceremony where the 21 informants received their respective rewards at Camp Crame in Quezon City.
“And if there were reports that he fled already, leaving our country, we are verifying that but to the strongest possibility that he is still here in the Philippines,” he added.
Ang is facing criminal cases of kidnapping with serious illegal detention and kidnapping with homicide—and the reason why he fled was that the cases are non-bailable.
And the reason why the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) approved a P20 million bounty was that Ang is elusive and has all the money to make himself, well in the words of a lawyer of a fugitive senator, “not available”.
The cases filed were in connection with the disappearance of 34 missing sabungeros.
As to the reward given to the 21 informants, Nartatez said it came from the agency’s intelligence fund.
The rewards included P2.995 million for the arrest of seven persons wanted for murder; P2.8 million for the arrest of two communist rebels; P840,000 for the arrest of six persons wanted for rape; and, P1.35 million for the arrest of two persons wanted for syndicated estafa.
Other cases involved robbery with multiple homicide and illegal trade of explosive materials.
Nartatez assured the public that all arrests that the PNP carries out are lawful, "We have police operational procedures for arrest procedures and basis for the arrest.”