"What is good is that we can now encourage witnesses to come out in the open," said Senior Superintendent Cipriano Querol, Capiz police director.
Senior Superintendent Reynaldo Rafal, head of Task Force Gardose, said he expects more witnesses to surface because of the cash reward.
Gov. Vicente Bermejo, Tapaz Mayor Romualdo Exmundo (not Castro as earlier reported), the Tapaz municipal council, and members of the business community contributed to the reward money, Querol said.
So far, police have four witnesses in their custody. "Hopefully they can describe, through an artist’s sketch, the assassin," Querol said, adding that the witnesses will also be shown photos of known guns-for-hire.
Intelligence units have photos of the suspected assassins, he added.
Gardose, his bodyguard Antonio Gequillo, and Barangay Karida chairman Leonardo Jimeno were gunned down as they were alighting from the vice mayor’s owner-type jeep at about 7 p.m. last Dec. 30.
Two motorcycle-riding men had followed the victims to the civic center of Barangay Taft. The ski mask-wearing gunman, believed to a "professional shooter," approached and shot them at close range.
Investigators have taken into custody PO3 Danilo Gelilang, Exmundo’s bodyguard, for his possible involvement in the assassination.