Lawmakers on Tuesday demanded an accounting of the P35-million reward money offered to speed up the solution of the Batocabe killing.
In House Resolution 384, House Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante Jr. said he was disturbed by reports that several witnesses had not received their share of the bounty and were now in fear due to lack of financial capacity to secure themselves and their families against bodily harm.
Similarly, Party-list Rep. Michael Defensor said the reward money should be accounted for.
“The reward money is intended to hasten the arrest of the suspects in the Batocabe killing,” Defensor said at a news conference Tuesday. He expressed support for the congressional inquiry into the matter.
Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe, 52, and his security escort, Senior Police Officer 2 Orlando Diaz, were shot dead by unidentified assailants shortly before Christmas last December 2018.
Earlier, Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr. voiced concern over the reported disappearance of the millions of pesos reward money offered for the capture of Batocabe killers.
Abante’s resolution noted that several personalities and institutions raised a bounty totaling to P35 million: P20 million from the Office of the President, P13 million from the House of Representatives under the 17th Congress, and another P2 million from the Province of Albay.
“This bounty was intended to incentivize witnesses to come forward and assist in the prosecution of those behind the murder and to cover the legal fees of lawyers engaged to prosecute the case. More importantly, the bounty was intended to ensure the safety of those who would come forward and testify against the assailants and the masterminds,” Abante said in the resolution.
But sadly, a congressional inquiry on the matter is necessary in light of the reported disappearance of the reward money, Abante said.
He said the House must be able to exercise its oversight function, in aid of legislation, to look into the disbursement of the bounty intended for witnesses for the prosecution, in relation to the Batocabe killing.
“Witnesses have already expressed their reluctance to testify for their alleged failure to deliever the bounties which were promised to them,” Abante said in the resolution.
The suspects were arrested early this year but the Philippine National Police has not accounted for the funds despite reported complaints from witnesses that all they received was P8 million.
To make matters worse, the witnesses allegedly complained that those who facilitated the release of their reward even asked for “commissions.”
Batocabe was about to board his vehicle when four armed men on motorcycles fired shots at him near the Burgos Elementary School in Daraga, Albay.
