TACLOBAN CITY- Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan disclosed that she is offering P100,000 reward to whoever could arrest or help them find the suspect dead or alive who killed a police officer and wounded another during an anti-drug operation. Tan said that by offering a reward money, suspect Ernesto Gonzales could be arrested and put in prison. “I have offered P100,000 reward money to whoever could arrest or at least help us find the suspect, dead or alive,” the governor said. The reward money was source from her office and part of it from the provincial police headquarters, the governor said. The Samar governor said that by offering reward money, she hopes that Gonzales, a known drug pusher in Marabut, would be apprehended immediately by police authorities.
Gonzales killed PO1 Gary Cabaguing during an anti-drug operation in Barangay Logero, Marabut, also in Samar, last August 24. Cabaguing, 32, was hit on the face by the suspect, a known drug pusher in Marabut town, who was inside a hole of his room. Another police officer, PO1 Nestor Villanueva, was hit at his right chest and is still recuperating at the Divine Word University Hospital (DWHU) in Tacloban City. President Rodrigo Duterte visited the wake of Cabaguing at his house in Catbalogan City last August 29 and Villanueva at his room at the DWUH. Gov. Tan said that she provided financial assistance of P100,000 to the family of Cabaguing, father to two children, and similar amount to Villanueva. Cabaguing received a posthumous award while Villanueva received “Medalya ng Sugatang Magiting” from police regional director, Chief Supt. Elmer Beltejar. Tan, meantime, said that she is fully supportive to the anti-drug campaign of Pres. Duterte. In fact, she asked all provincial officials, heads of various departments of the provincial capitol and its employees to undergo a drug test on August 11. Fortunately, the governor said, all those who underwent the drug tests yielded negative results. “This only manifest of our full support to the thrust of Pres. Duterte against illegal drugs,” Tan said. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
