P300,000 bounty up for ex-Palawan governor

MANILA, Philippines—A P300,000 reward money has been put out by private sector supporters of slain broadcaster and environmentalist Dr. Gerardo “Gerry” Ortega for information leading the arrest of alleged masterminds, former Palawan Governor Joel Reyes and his brother, Coron town mayor Mario Reyes Jr.

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said the funds were collected from money offered by his friends from the private sector, and from the fund-raising efforts from the camp of Ortega’s widow, Patria Ortega.

“The camp of Mrs. Ortega has put up P100,000 and my friends from the private sector also were able to raise P200,000. That’s a total of P300,000 as reward money to any informant who could provide us leads for the  arrest of the Reyes brothers,” Robredo said.

Robredo said he believes that the Reyes brothers are still in the country, as no information has been received indicating the two have already escaped through the country’s air and sea ports, or even through the Southern backdoor 4.

“There are no records or reports from the Bureau of Immigration that the Reyes brothers have left for abroad while our police tracker teams have also not received reports that both may have used the Southern backdoor to escape prosecution,” he said.

Ortega, also the ABS-CBN program director for Philippine Ecotourism Palawan, was gunned down on broad daylight while shopping at a used clothing (ukay-ukay) store in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan on January 24, 2011.

DILG said police later arrested the alleged gunman, Marlon Recamata, who claimed he was hired by Joel Reyes’s security aide, Rodolfo Edrad Jr. The security aide was also arrested.

Edrad claimed that he hired Recamata for P150,000 on Reyes’s orders to do the job.

DILG said the Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier cleared Reyes of the charges for insufficiency of evidence but reversed it and indicted him and several suspects later.

Acting on the DOJ’s move, DILG said Branch 22 of the Regional Trial Court of Palawan ordered on March 27 the arrest of the Reyes brothers, former Palawan Provincial Administrator Romeo Seratubias, and provincial government employees Arturo Regalado and Percival Lecias, in connection to Ortega’s murder.

DILG said Reyes’s lawyers have asked the Court of Appeals to nullify the arrest warrant issued against the siblings. The lawyers also filed a petition for certiorari on the latest resolution issued by DOJ, recommending the filing of murder charges against the Reyes’s and their alleged accomplices.

Citing insufficient evidence, Reyes claimed before the Court of Appeals that there was no new or material evidence that would warrant the DOJ to reconsider its previous ruling that cleared the former governor of the charges. The CA has yet to act on his appeal and the warrant for his arrest is still in effect, DILG said.