P.75-M reward for arrest of Llamas gunman

The family and friends of slain Ateneo law graduate Jose Ramon Llamas, together with the Pasay City police and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), have put up a P750,000 reward for anyone who can provide authorities with information leading to the arrest of principal suspect, Bashir Abdulrahman.

Aside from Llamas’ family, his friends from rival schools Ateneo de Manila University and De La Salle University also contributed to the fund, said Mike Atayde, a cousin of Llamas.

"We are officially announcing today that a reward money has been raised. Jay graduated from Ateneo and La Salle and his friends from both schools gave some contributions," Atayde told reporters.

Atayde and Llamas’ younger brother, Mon, represented the victim’s family as the police and the NBI filed the murder charged against Abdulrahman at the city prosecutor’s office yesterday afternoon.

Also present at the filing were JC Aliling of the Aquila Legal Aid Clinic and lawyer Vicente Verdadero, who heads the three-lawyer panel formed by the Aquila Legis fraternity to pursue the Llamas case. Llamas, 26, was a member of the fraternity.

Verdadero said P350,000 was raised by family and friends, while the police and the NBI put up P200,000 each for the reward.

Llamas’ brother said the most important thing right now is for Abdulrahman to be arrested and brought to justice.

He said that his family was satisfied with the work and effort the police and the NBI has put into his solving his brother’s case.

Verdadero said he learned the authorities conducted a joint manhunt operation to arrest Abdulrahman Monday night. But the lawyer said he was not privy where Abdulrahman was suspected to be hiding.

Pasay City police chief, Senior Superintendent Oscar Catalan, also declined to comment on Abdulrahman’s reported whereabouts, explaining it might burn out their operations.

Verdadero earlier said that Aquila Legis member and Muslim leader, Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen, had agreed to help in finding Abdulrahman. Verdadero quoted the congressman as saying that religion was "immaterial" in the case.

In a related development, Pasay City Mayor Wenceslao "Peewee" Trinidad in a statement said he had made an urgent directive to Catalan to look into reports that Abdulrahman has close ties with and is enjoying protection from a local official.

But Catalan and Verdadero, in separate interviews, said the reports were mere speculations.

"It’s quite impossible because Abdulrahman was never a resident of Pasay, never did business in Pasay, and thus would not have anything to gain from any local official," Catalan said.

With the filing of the case, Verdadero explained that the prosecutor’s office would still have to conduct a preliminary investigation and find probable cause before a charge is filed at the Regional Trial Court (RTC). This is because the suspect was not arrested right at the crime scene.

Verdadero said authorities decided to file a murder charge against the suspect because of the "treachery" involved and "the suddenness of the attack".

Autopsy results showed that Llamas was shot on the nape, indicating that he had his back towards the gunman, Verdadero said. Moreover, the gunman shot Llamas twice more when he was already lying on the road.

Verdadero said among the pieces of evidence submitted to the prosecutor’s office were the sworn statements of witnesses and the NBI medico-legal, and the results of the ballistic test that showed that the slug found in the crime scene came from Abdulrahman’s Taurus .9mm.

Llamas was shot dead last Jan. 10 at the corner of Buendia and Taft Avenues during a traffic altercation.