BY ZALDY COMANDA
KALINGA – After 45 years of hiding, a man wanted for the killing of a mayor in 1976 and for the ambush of another in 2008 was finally arrested by authorities at Sitio Binongsay, Barangay Malin-awa in Tabuk City, Kalinga, police reported Friday.
Col. Davy Limmong, director of Kalinga Provincial Police Office, identified the suspect as Jaime Tochok Bulatao, 77, of Barangay Butbut Proper, Tinglayan, Kalinga. He has been in the list of most wanted persons in Cordillera.
In 2002, the Department of the Interior and Local Government offered a P75,000 reward for his arrest.
Limmong said Bulatao was charged with murder without bail for his involvement in the killing of then Tinglayan Mayor Alexander Alngag in 1976.
The police official said Bulatao was also tagged in the ambush of then former Mayor Marcelo dela Cruz of Rizal, Kalinga, who was travelling with policemen from Tabuk to Rizal in 2008. He was charged with multiple frustrated murder with a recommended bail of P200,000.
Limmong said police teams nabbed Bulatao by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued by Judge Marcelino Wacas of RTC Branch 25 in Bulanao, Tabuk City, Kalinga, for murder and multiple frustrated murder.