MANILA -- The Philippine National Police (PNP) said Wednesday it is monitoring a mayor in Central Luzon who is allegedly coddling gun-for-hire gang leader Ricardo Peralta.
PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group head, Chief Supt. Glen Dumlao, said this information was based on the accounts of the arrested members of the Peralta Group.
He said the AKG, together with the local police, is building up a case against the mayor, whom he refused to identify.
Dumlao said they have also identified two other politicians who had been using the Peralta group for their illegal activities.
He revealed that the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) has increased to PHP10 million the reward for information leading to the arrest of Peralta.
“The good thing here is that we have the eyes of the community of the tipster. The PHP10 million reward will not go to the person who is coddling him but probably, to that person's aides. Maybe the caretaker in the farm or the one who cooks there. They will probably be the one to call us that the suspect is here,” Dumlao said in a press conference.
The PNP official said Peralta and his group has a long list of assassination activities in Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Tarlac, Metro Manila, and Cagayan Valley.
He also has standing warrants of arrest for multiple murder, kidnapping, car theft, and highway robbery.
VACC president Boy Evangelista, meanwhile, said the reward money was increased through the help of Gapan Mayor Emerson Pascual, whose brothers Erickson and Ebertson, were killed by the Peralta group in 2016 reportedly following the order of then Gapan mayor Ernesto Natividad due to politics.
PNP Chief, Director General Oscar Albayalde, said the group is being tapped by politicians, especially during election period to get ahead of their political rivals.
On Monday, the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group arrested five members of the Peralta Group, identified as Dennis Matian, Mary Ann Mallari, Raymond Dequina, John Lana, and Jackie Lou Isidro in separate operations from October 25 to 29. (PNA)
