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 to be followed in giving out the unprecedented bounty.
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 set the time when the estimated P50 million has become ripe to be turned over to the deserving informant.
The Philippine National Police may recommend the former security aide of Daraga, Albay Mayor Carlwyn Baldo to receive the P50-million reward earlier offered to solve the assassination of Batocabe.
PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said that it was Emmanuel Judavar who helped a lot in providing information that confirmed the political angle lead being pursued then by the investigators.
“If they would ask for recommendation, of course it is Judavar,” Albayalde said.
Ako Bicol was the first to offer a bounty to informants who could lead police investigators to the identification, arrest, and prosecution of the gunmen, the mastermind, and the cohorts in the assassination of man Rodel Batocabe and his security escort, SPO2 Orlando Diaz.
The party-list organization put up 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 Dec. 22.
The provincial government of Albay headed by Gov. Al Francis Bichara offered P2 million.
Batocabe’s House colleagues led by Negros Occidental Rep. Albee Benitez launched a fund drive to attempt 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 Duterte pledged P20 million more.
Albayalde said that there was still no coordination with the PNP with the people and groups who raised the reward money.
“There is still no guidance from the Department of the Interior and Local Government as to who would get the reward money,” said Albayalde.
“But I am sure that it could be the witness (Judavar) since everything started from him,” he added. (Ben R. Rosario and Aaron Recuenco)
