THE Palace on Sunday distanced itself—and rightly so—from the P1 million bounty offered for information leading to the arrest of four former lawmakers belonging to the political left.
The reward, presented in bundles of cash at a press conference by a lawyer, was offered by lawyer Ferdinand Topacio on behalf of nameless donors, for the arrest of Liza Maza, Rafael Mariano, Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño, all former lawmakers. Maza is also the current commissioner of the Anti-Poverty Commission, and Mariano was the former Agrarian Reform secretary for the Duterte administration.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque said Maza still remains a member of the Cabinet, and that the reward offered was a private init iative.
“As far as we are concerned, all aspects of this case are in the hands of the court and we look forward to an impartial and expeditious trial,” Roque said Sunday.
Topacio, an official of the watchdog group Citizen’s Crime Watch (CCW), said “concerned private citizens” raised the reward money to anyone who could give substantial information that would lead to the arrest of four former lawmakers accused of double murder 12 years ago.
He said seven people, some of them businessmen and former clients, donated the P1 million, which was coursed through CWW.
“You will be surprised some people are already fed up with the antics of some of these politicians. These people are silent people, but deep down inside they are concerned of what’s happening in the country…these are simple businessmen,” he said, without naming the contributors.
The reward money, wrapped in bundles, were shown to the media along with four huge tarpaulins containing the photos of the four targeted political leaders.
Given the shadowy nature of the “donations” and the anonymity of the donors, the entire exercise seemed like a publicity stunt that cheapened the justice system and reflected poorly on law enforcement agencies tasked to arrest the four former lawmakers. After all, shouldn’t the police and the National Bureau of Investigation be able to perform their duties without the help such whistle blower incentives?
The posting of the reward also suggests that the targets were common criminals, wanted for some recent, heinous and sensational crime—instead of former lawmakers wanted on 12-year-old murder charges.
Given the administration’s deteriorating relations with the communists, we can hardly blame militant lawmakers from seeing the recent developments as harassment of the political left. The “private” bounty just poured more fuel onto the simmering fire.