A 31-year-old dispatcher of a public utility jeepney in barangay Labangon went home Thursday with the P300,000 reward for information that led to the arrest of a man wanted for murder in Mindanao.
The dispatcher, turned informant, was accompanied by Sr. Insp. Michael Anthony Bastes, deputy chief of the City Police Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch, to the PNP Headquarters in Camp Crame to claim the reward money.
With his identity kept secret for security reasons, the dispatcher’s bounty started when he got the unsolicited information from his co-dispatcher, 29-year-old Alfredo Tabapa Jr., who turned out to be the wanted man himself.
The dispatcher said that, during their work, Tabapa kept on bragging to him about having killed a man in Bukidnon years back. He got disgusted of Tabapa’s story so, out of curiosity, he went to the police to request Bastes to do a background check on Tabapa.
The unintended verification turned out to be a source of bounty for the dispatcher. Bastes said that Tabapa has been wanted for murder, ranked ninth in the most wanted list of criminals in Mindanao, and carried a P300,000 reward for his arrest.
The dispatcher then told Bastes that Tabapa has been his co-dispatcher in Labangon and this prompted the CIIB official to look for and eventually arrest last June 14 Tabapa who was at a plaza in Naga City at the time.
Tabapa, a native of Purok I at barangay Paitan in Quezon town of Bukidnon province, has earlier admitted, in an earlier interview with The Freeman, that he killed the man out of a grudge between them over a land dispute.
A warrant of arrest, without bail, has been issued against Tabapa by the acting presiding judge of the Regional Trial Court-branch 8 in Malaybalay, Bukidnon.
Bastes presented Tabapa to Cebu City Police Office director, Sr. Supt. Patrocinio Comendador, who in turn arranged for the release of the money reward to the dispatcher-informant.
The informant, meanwhile, said he wanted to spend his money by buying a house and lot so he could fetch his family from Zamboanga and bring them to stay with him here in Cebu. — Edwin Ian Melecio/RAE