PNP: Going rate for hired killers P20,000 up

For as low as P20,000, one can hire killers to snuff the life out of his or her enemies, the spokesman for the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Thursday. In a radio interview, Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao Jr said this was the information reaching the police headquarters in Camp Crame, even as PNP chief Director General Oscar Calderon ordered an "OB" (order of battle) list on hired killers drawn up. "For a relatively low price, you can hire killers. We have received reports of hired killers agreeing to such an amount. The amount likely depends on who the target is, and the resulting level of difficulty," Pagdilao said in Filipino over dzMM radio. He said Calderon had ordered regional directors and support units to draw up a list of guns-for-hire in a bid to flush them out, especially with the May 2007 elections around the corner. Pagdilao said Calderon wants the police units concerned to "know, seek and arrest" these guns-for-hire. The PNP intensified its efforts to go after murderers following the assassination of Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin Jr outside a church in Quezon City last weekend. The assassination of Bersamin followed the failed bomb try on Pasig Rep. Robert "Dodot" Jaworski Jr as well as the purported threat on the life of House Majority Leader Prospero Nograles. Pagdilao said Calderon has also ordered more aggressive checkpoints and search operations for firearms. On the other hand, he declined to comment on whether the PNP supports a proposal by Rep. Robert Ace Barbers to bring back the death penalty, merely saying that such is a "policy decision." - GMANews.TV