P1.4 bounty for Ativan Gang

The Philippine National Police (PNP) has put up a P1.4 million bounty for any information that will lead to the arrest of seven suspected Ativan gang members victimizing foreign tourists in Metro Manila.

Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief, Director Nestorio Gualberto, said the reward was P200,000 for each suspect.

The PNP-Directorate for Intelligence (DI), under the government’s reward system, approved the bounty yesterday as the police stepped up the manhunt for the suspects.

"We have already identified them and where they reside but they have disappeared," Gualberto said.

The rewards came after outgoing PNP chief Director General Leandro Mendoza advised tourists not to deal with strangers especially in ‘honky-tonk’ districts.

Gualberto said that charges of robbery have been filed against the suspects – five men and two women – with the Makati City prosecutors office.

The suspects’ latest victims were three Japanese executives, and a Frenchman, in addition to a Korean diplomat whose body was found dumped in Marikina City.

On Wednesday, Shuhei Uchida, a Japanese executive connected with Metro Manila Light Railway Transit (LRTA), filed a complaint with the CIDG against the group who victimized him in Makati last Monday evening.

When presented pictures of five of the suspects, Uchida positively identified one of the suspects, a certain Roberto Sambili, leader of a group tagged behind the death of Korean diplomat Chung Young Ho, whose body was found dumped in Marikina City.

Police also tagged the Sambili group who victimized Frenchman cattle breeder Michael Hennequin, 53, in Makati City last Sunday.

Henniquin was found unconscious in Dasmariñas, Cavite stripped of his cash and valuables.

Two more Japanese who came forward to complain against the group, refused to give their identities.

All the victims, claimed that they were befriended by the suspects who are all fluent in the Japanese, Chinese, Korean and French languages. – Jaime Laude and Pia Lee-Brago