EDITORIAL - It is all about the reward money

One nagging question that surfaced in the aftermath of the killing of the main suspect in the murder of 17-year-old Karen Kaye Montebon has nothing to do with the case itself but with the reward of P500,000 offered by Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza for any information leading to the solution of the case. Well, the case was promptly solved Tuesday, or so said the police, when Ruben Fernandez was shot dead in an islet off Getafe, Bohol as he was trying to flee an approaching police posse.

The nagging question asks who gets the reward money. Considering that several tipsters were said to have provided information that led to the pinpointing by the police of Fernandez's location and his eventual death, the question is nagging indeed. In fact, it is so nagging that Radaza herself was reported to have said she will not hesitate to withhold giving of the reward if it cannot be absolutely determined who qualifies to get the money.

But don't you think it is rather tacky for everyone to now debate on who should get the money when the period of bereavement over the death of Montebon is not yet even over? The parents, relatives and friends of Montebon are still struggling to get over the tragedy, and yet there now seems to be a mad scramble for a reward that should not have been offered in the first place.

This is not to say that rewards do not have their uses. In fact they can be very useful, as proven in the case of Montebon. But rewards ought to be offered only after normal law enforcement operations appear headed for failure and that the only way a case can be solved is through the solicitation of outside help, normally by way of dangling some reward.

In this case, however, the reward was announced shortly after the murder. Perhaps the reward offer was precipitated by the anger felt by the Cebuano community over the apparent senselessness of the crime. And that makes the offer understandable, especially since it now appears to have quickly borne fruit. But all that seems to quickly dissipate because of the scramble for money.

Indeed there are insinuations that the announcement of closure to the case may have been made too hastily and could have been precipitated by the need to quickly collect the reward. Right now it is still not clear who shot and killed the main suspect and that makes for a loose end. And a case ought not to be considered closed if there are still loose ends needing to be sewn up.

At any rate, the killer has been killed and justice has been served, although not in the manner that most people hoped for or expected. It is now up to Radaza whether she goes ahead and gives the reward money away or decides not to give it on account of the uncertainty over who to give it to. And if it still matters, the giving of rewards should not be made too quickly. It is best to give law enforcers all the time to do what they are already been paid to do.