Reward raised for info on bombing

BLAST SITE President Duterte visits the night market on Roxas Avenue in Davao City where 14 people were killed and 68 others injured after an explosion tore through what Davaoeños call their happy place. Malacañang photo

The city government of Davao Thursday raised to P3 million  from P2 million the reward for any information leading to the arrest of the suspect in last week’s bombing that left 14 dead and dozens injured.

Retired Army Gen. Benito de Leon, newly appointed chief of the Davao City Public Safety and Security Command Center, said Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio was scheduled to announce the increase, which she had discussed with command center officials in a meeting in the afternoon.

The additional P1 million was raised by private business groups.

Extraordinary effort

The increase coincided with the release of a cartographic sketch of the male suspect who was identified by some of the injured as the one who left the plastic bag that contained the improvised explosive device that exploded.

De Leon said the increase in the reward was “a kind of extraordinary effort” to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The command center is in charge of coordinating the military, other uniformed services and line offices to ensure safety and security of Davao City.

De Leon, a member of PMA Class 1981, is former chief of staff of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division in Davao City and commander of Task Force General Santos. He retired from the military service in March 2016.

Meanwhile, newly designated Task Force Davao commander Col. Erwin Neri vowed to turn the unfortunate incident into an opportunity to boost sharing of intelligence and better secure the city.

Public involvement

Neri said the public must be involved in intelligence gathering even as they should also be taught to be more vigilant in monitoring possible threats in the community.

He urged the people of Davao to continue with their normal activities, saying the task force would see to it that the beefing up of security in the city would cause minimal inconvenience to them.