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BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO and GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Sunday, January 29, 2017
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ILOILO – Law enforcers hunting for suspected drug lord Richard Prevendido must capture him alive, according to Superintendent Harold Tuzon, director of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO).
“No shoot-to-kill order. We want him alive,” Tuzon told Panay News.
Acting on a deluge of tips from informants, policemen have stepped up the search for the elusive Prevendido, a resident of Barangay Bakhaw, Mandurriao, Iloilo City.
The city and provincial governments of Iloilo each offered a cash reward of P500 thousand – for a total of P1 million – to whoever could give information leading to Prevendido’s arrest.
According to Tuzon, the IPPO has not received a shoot-to-kill order from higher police authorities against Prevendido whom the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Region 6 tagged as the drug lord codenamed “Buang.”
“We have to follow proper operational procedures. We have to get him alive. He has to answer the charges filed against him in court,” said Tuzon.
Following PDEA’s raid of Prevendido’s house in October last year, the suspect was charged with violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. PDEA operatives recovered sachets of shabu from his house.
The warrant for the suspect’s arrest was issued early this month.
After the bounty for Prevendido’s capture rose to a million pesos last week, rumors swirled that a shoot-to-kill order was issued.
Chief Superintendent Jose Gentiles, regional police director, confirmed that the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) started receiving numerous tips on Prevendido’s whereabouts after the cash rewards were made public.
As of this writing, however, Prevendido’s whereabouts remained unknown.
Gentiles said the PRO-6 added P50,000 more to the cash reward.
In a bid to further hasten the suspect’s arrest, the Iloilo City Police Office started distributing photos of Prevendido.
According to Senior Superintendent Remus Zacharias Canieso, city police director, he also sought the help of the media, both print and broadcast, through their websites and social media accounts like Facebook.
The identities of the informants will be treated with strict confidentiality, said Canieso.
He also reiterated that the monetary reward would only be released to the civilian informant.
The arresting uniform police personnel and police “assets” were not qualified for the bounty.
The award would be released regardless of which law enforcement agency the informant contacted, he added.
Prevendido is the brother of Barangay Captain Remia Prevendido Gregori of Bakhaw, Mandurriao. She is mum on her sibling’s whereabouts.
With a million pesos reward for his capture, Prevendido is now a “national high-value drug target”, according to Gentiles.
Last month, Gentiles gave his men until the end of December 2016 to arrest Prevendido. But the cops failed to beat the police general’s deadline.
Now that the bounty has reached a million pesos, Gentiles is more confident that the suspect would be caught.
“Not only government forces are hunting Prevendido down but also his own group members and other criminal gangs, Gentiles claimed./PN
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