Ellah Joy's Pa wants CLB to handle reward money

CEBU, Philippines - If there’s anyone who shall keep and hand over the P50,000 reward for the arrest of suspect Bella Ruby Santos, Renante Pique said it would be the Children’s Legal Bureau (CLB).

Pique, the 40-year-old father of kidnap and murder victim Ellah Joy Pique, said he refuses to take custody of the money collected by the police and sees CLB as the right group to keep it.

“Dili ko modawat, kay ug para reward na, ang CLB dapat modawat ana ug muhatag,” Pique told The FREEMAN.

Earlier, Cebu Provincial Police Office director Patrocinio Comendador Jr. suggested that Pique keep the money, saying he also would not want to keep it himself.

Comendador, also spokesperson of Task Force Ellah Joy, had expressed willingness to accept any donations if somebody from a non-government organization will keep the cash.

CLB is a non-stock NGO that advocates children’s legal rights and is based in Kamputhaw, Cebu City.

Comendador said he has no objections to Renante’s preference saying CLB is an independent body.

Next week, Comendador will turn over the money they raised to CLB.

Last saturday, CLB launched their Child Protect Movement with Pique as one of the parents who attended the campaign’s kickoff which featured a walk dubbed “Walk a Mile, Protect a Child.”

CPPO reached their targetted P50,000 reward money last August 19 to be given to any person who can inform them of Santos’ whereabouts.

Renante was then glad to learn that the bounty has been raised.

Meanwhile, Renante described the recent act from the camp of Santos and her British boyfriend, Ian Charles Griffiths, as “pagpanglawgaw sa kaso.”

“Usahay makaingon ta nga ilang gibinuangan ang kaso,” he said.

Renante said he trusts the task force. He is confident that they will solve the case and eventually give justice to his daughter’s death.

Santos and her British boyfriend, Ian Charles Griffiths, are tagged as suspects in the death of six-year-old Ellah Joy. Police filed kidnapping with homicide charges against the couple.

Ellah Joy, a grade 1 pupil, was abducted outside her school in Minglanilla last Feb. 8. Her body was found the next day at the foot of a cliff in Barili town. — (FREEMAN)