After raising reward, Palace discourages bounty hunting for 7 high-profile fugitives

After raising rewards for the capture of seven high-profile fugitives, Malacañang on Sunday discouraged prospective bounty hunters from going after the wanted personalities themselves. "We are not encouraging people themselves to go out and search for the fugitives," said deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte on government-run dzRB radio. She also defended the bounty increases, saying the subjects are “not ordinary” fugitives. "Based on experience, giving out a higher amount of money for reward has always yielded better results,” she said. The Palace announced the increases on Friday. Three of the fugitives had the rewards for their capture raised to P2 million: - retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr., linked to the disappearance of two activists in 2006; - former Palawan Governor Joel Reyes, charged in the murder of environmentalist-broadcaster Gerry Ortega in 2011; and - former Dinagat Islands Rep. Ruben Ecleo Jr., who was found guilty of his wife's murder. Reyes' brother, former Coron mayor Mario Reyes, is also wanted for Ortega's murder and now has a P2-million bounty on his head as well. The government is also offering a P2-million reward for the capture of Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings president Delfin Lee, accused of defrauding the government of billions of pesos in housing loans. There are also existing rewards of P5.6 million each for information leading to the capture of: - Benito Tiamzon, leader of what is believed to be the hardline faction of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army, linked to attacks on civilian targets; and - Jorge Madlos, a CPP-NPA personality also linked to high-profile attacks on civilian targets and economic projects in Mindanao. Job of the police — CBCP Valte contested a statement by Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines National Secretariat for Social Action - Justice and Peace (Nassa) official Fr. Edu Gariguez that the reward raise shows the criminal justice system is failing. Gariguez said it was not good to offer reward money because capturing fugitives should be strictly police work. “The government should really show the effectiveness of the criminal justice system and prove the capabilities of our authorities in arresting criminals,” Gariguez said. He expressed hope that authorities will find and arrest the fugitives, particularly Palparan. But Valte said offering rewards had succeeded in encouraging people to provide information. “In our experience, the concept of a reward...encourages people to give information,” she said. Valte added that Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo had said some fugitives like Palparan have had training and could not be easily captured by tracker teams. She said Robredo had described Palparan as “[no] ordinary fugitive." “Hindi 'yan ordinaryong hinahanap natin. A retired general you would expect may training 'yan, may kakayahan, that makes the tracking difficult,” she said. “That being said, the tracking goes on,” she added. - BM, GMA News