Informants in newsmen’s slay receive P200,000 reward

Northern Police District (NPD) director Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil awarded yesterday P100,000 cash each to the two informants whose tips led to the arrest of the prime suspects in the recent killings of a TV cameraman and a photojournalist in the northern part of Metro Manila.

"The Philippine National Police (PNP) is hoping that the reward given to these informants, who were instrumental in the arrest of the suspects in the slay of RPN-9 cameraman Ralph Ruñez and Tanod photojournalist Prudencio Melendres, would motivate other witnesses to come out and help the us in our anti-crime drive," Bataoil said.

The P200,000 reward was given at around noon yesterday to the informants at Bataoil’s office at NPD headquarters on Tanigue st., Kaunlaran Village, Dagat-Dagatan, Caloocan City.

Senior Superintendent Moises Guevarra, Malabon City police chief; Senior Superintendent Geronimo Reside, Caloocan City police chief; his deputy, Superintendent Napoleon Cuaton; and Superintendent Jimili Macaraeg, NPD-District Police Intelligence and Investigation (DIID) chief, witnessed the event.

"These informants served as instruments for the success of the NPD’s manhunt operations against the suspects who are now languishing in jail," Bataoil said.

On July 28, two motorcycle-riding men gunned down Ruñez while he was about to enter his house in Barangay 186, Tala, Caloocan City. The suspects took the victim’s P25,000 and fled. Four days later, Melendres, a tabloid photojournalist, was ambushed near his house in Barangay Tonsuya, Malabon City.

Alarmed by the series of media killings, Bataoil offered a P100,000 reward for information that may lead to the arrest of the suspects.

A few days after the award was announced, Caloocan cops Inspector Bryan Limbo and PO3 Aristotle de Guzman and their alleged cohort, identified as one Ernani Magnayon, were arrested for Ruñez’s rob-slay after witnesses identified them as the main suspects in the case.

Less than a week after Melendres was killed, the police, through the help of another informant, arrested Roberto Lopez, who was said to be the gunman of the tabloid photojournalist.

The police later established that the killings of Ruñez and Melendres were not work-related but Bataoil assured their respective families that the police would not stop until justice is served.