Duterte raises reward for cop killers to P1.3-M

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte commiserates with the kin of one of the slain police officers as he visits the wake at Camp Lt. Col. Francisco C. Fernandez Jr. in Sibulan, Negros Oriental on July 20, 2019. During his visit, the President honors the four police officers who were killed in an ambush by suspected communist rebels last July 18. With the President are Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año, Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, and Philippine National Police Chief General Oscar Albayalde. ALBERT ALCAIN/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA — President Rodrigo R. Duterte has raised the reward for the capture of the killers of the four police personnel in Sitio Yamot, Barangay Mabato in Ayungon town, Negros Oriental on July 18.

Duterte earlier offered a PHP1 million reward for the capture of the killers but later bared that he would add PHP300,000 to the bounty.

In a chance interview after his fourth state of the nation address (SONA) on Monday (July 22), Duterte said he preferred to have the killers dead.

“Mas gusto kong patay sila. Kung patay sila magdadagdag pa ako ng 300,000 (I prefer to see them dead. If they’re dead, I’m going to add PHP300,000). So it’s [PHP1.3 million], just bring me the head of that idiot leader there,” Duterte said.

The slain cops were Cpl. Relebert Beronio, Pat. Raffy Callao, Pat. Ruel Cabellon, and Pat. Marquino de Leon who are all intelligence personnel from the 704th Mobile Force Company Regional Mobile Force Battalion of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Central Visayas.

Reports showed that the four cops were on their way to the detachment at Sitio Nabinca when armed men suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) shot them in different parts of their bodies.

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.