Zambo tipster gets P.4-million reward

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Police handed over a P400,000 reward yesterday to a civilian informant for helping authorities neutralize a wanted Moro Islamic Liberation Front commander tagged in the attacks on two Zamboanga towns.

The informant, wearing a ski mask and a jacket, received the reward during a simple ceremony at the headquarters of the Region 9 police at Camp Abendan east of this city.

Superintendent Jose Bayani Gucela, regional police spokesman, said the wanted MILF commander, Hamid Wahab, alias Diablo Lantog, was killed in an encounter in August 2007.

The reward, however, was only released last Wednesday pending verification by the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Police said Wahab was tagged in the pillage of Ipil town in Zamboanga Sibugay in April 1995, and the attack on Siocon town in Zamboanga del Norte in May 2003.

Police said Wahab had a string of arrest warrants for 13 counts of murder, one count of murder with direct assault on a person in authority, and five counts of frustrated murder.

The cases involved the massacre of the Alamain family in Barangay Matiag, Siocon town, and the killing of PO3 Wilfredo Ocay, also in Siocon.