P400,000 reward up for info on killers of minor, tricycle driver in Cotabato

Mayor Sumulong Sultan of Pikit (with mic) presides over the emergency meeting of the Municipal Peace and Order Council, where a P400,000 reward money was raised to help fast-track the probe into the series of killings in Cotabato town. PHOTO COURTESY OF 90th INFANTRY BATTALION

PIKIT, COTABATO-–The local government here has offered a P400,000 reward to anyone who could provide information that would lead to the identification and arrest of the suspects behind the recent killing of a 13-year-old student, a tricycle driver.

Pikit Mayor Sumulong Sultan said the amount would hopefully help fast-track the identification of the brains behind the series of killings in the town.

“We need your help, we need everybody’s help to stop all these killings,” Sultan told members of the Municipal Peace and Order Council (MPOC), who approved the use of the P400,000 for the information. Of the amount, P200,000 will go to anyone who can help identify the killers of 13-year-old student Fahad Guiamalon, gunned down on February 14, while walking home with two companions to Barangay Macabual for lunch. Guiamalon did not survive while his companions, both 12-year-old students of the Pikit National High School were wounded. Another P200,000 will go to anyone who could give information behind the killing of tricycle driver Jose Neri Gonzales on Feb. 13, or the day before Guiamalon’s killing.

The mayor urged those who had the information to come forward and submit evidence to the police for verification and validation.

By the local media’s count alone, Guiamalon’s death brought to 30 persons killed in a series of gun attacks in Pikit since September 2022, considered the height of the killings, which started as early as January.

Pikit town’s Sangguniang Bayan also passed a resolution banning motorcycle riding in tandem in town, one of the most common ways perpetrators carry out the killings. “The police will implement a no riding tandem policy,” Sultan said.

Two other companies of soldiers have been deployed to help the police contain the series of gun attacks in the town.

The Police Regional Office in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PRO-BARMM) said it was ready to deploy police personnel to augment the security personnel of Pikit.

Sultan had earlier called off classes in all public and private schools for three days following the gun attack against Guiamalon and his two minor companions but all classes had since resumed on Monday, February 20.

More police personnel have been deployed near schools to ensure the safety of school children, said Sultan.

RELATED STORY:

Another gun attack kills Cotabato student 

JPV/abc