Bounty vs killers of Cotabato City mayor's secretary raised to P550,000

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Contributions for the bounty for the killers of the secretary to the mayor here reached P550,000 while the official was being laid to rest Saturday.

Employees of the city government, barangay chairpersons and members of the Sangguniang Panglungsod attended Saturday’s burial rites for Anecito Rasalan.

He was shot dead by a gunman accompanied by another on a motorcycle while inside a roadside eatery here Monday.

Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi and and relatives of Rasalan, most known in Cotabato City as “Boy Rasalan,” have urged the police to identify his killers for them to be prosecuted in court.

Rasalan was buried at the Marian Hills Cemetery in nearby Datu Odin Sinsuat on Saturday morning.

Guiani-Sayadi, presiding chairperson of the city peace and order council, first offered Tuesday a P300,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest of Rasalan’s killers.

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte augmented the bounty with P30,000 cash two days later.

City officials announced while at the cemetery that donors have contributed P220,000 more for the bounty, raising the amount to P550,000.

The Cotabato City Police Office has enlisted the help of barangay officials in trying to identify the killers of Rasalan.

Rasalan was seriously wounded in an ambush in 2015 in what probers believe was an attack related to his work.

Probers have collected footage from security cameras in establishments in the premises of the small restaurant where Rasalan was shot dead to hasten efforts of identifying the culprits.