Reward system vs Abra fugitives pays off

CAMP JUAN VILLAMOR, Bangued, Abra — A system of cash rewards put up by Abra folk is paying off with the recent arrest of 12 criminals, two of them in the national most wanted list.

Senior Superintendent Arturo Quilop, provincial police director, said civic-spirited Abreneos whom he had tapped gave as much as P25,000 each for the continuing police campaign to rid the province of people long wanted by the law.

Part of the reward fund, he said, is spent for intelligence gathering and monitoring by police agents.

Quilop was ecstatic at how cash incentives have drawn local folk into providing police with vital information leading to the capture of fugitives.

Informers who provide accurate information were given as much as P25,000 for each fugitive arrested, Quilop told The STAR.

He noted, however, that cash rewards have had no effect in other provinces, citing how a P500,000 offer has allegedly remained without a taker in a nearby province.

"I have found a strategy to flush criminals out and for this, I thank the people of Abra for their patronage and sense of community," he said.

Explaining why his strategy does not seem to work in other provinces, Quilop said, "I think the difference between (the Abreneos) and those in other areas is that tipsters here trust their policemen."

Besides, he said residents in other provinces fear possible reprisal once an arrested fugitive gets out of jail.

Two of those arrested due to the reward system were Richelle Regunton, wanted for allegedly raping a retarded woman in 1998, and Charito Tolentino, implicated in the ambush of Landigen Vice Mayor Isidro Bueno in April last year (Bueno survived the attack, but his driver was killed).

Both were in the national most wanted list. Informants who helped in their arrest received P90,000 each from the national government, apart from P25,000 each from the provincial fund.

The other fugitives captured included Manny Elveña, Bonifacio Pemado, Melvin Joy Batalao, George Agcongay and John Batoon.