The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) on Saturday said it has yet to receive information on the whereabouts of former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Gerald Bantag and former BuCor deputy security officer Ricardo Zulueta despite the P3 million bounty offered.
According to NCRPO chief Maj. Gen. Edgar Alan Okubo, the agency has been deploying tracker teams and monitoring Bantag and Zulueta's residences.
Okubo said that the NCRPO will verify every piece of information provided to them.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) previously promised a P2 million reward for Bantag and a P1-million reward for Zulueta, who are wanted for the murders of radio journalist Percy Lapid and new Bilibid Prison (NBP) inmate Cristito Palana Villamor.
Villamor was the suspected middleman who hired self-confessed gunman Joel Escorial to assassinate Lapid.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla previously stated that they decided to make the manhunt to boost the chances of apprehending the two fugitives, noting that both are still in the country, particularly in Luzon.
The DOJ obtained detention departure order through the Bureau of Immigration to prevent Bantag and Zulueta from exiting the country.
Bantag had indicated his intention to surrender twice in the previous two months, but he had never been in court to face the allegations.
The DOJ previously said that Bantag received tips from his connection with the police force and other law enforcement agencies that assisted him in evading investigators' leads on his locations.
However, the PNP denied this claim, saying that Bantag was never a cop.
In October 2022, Lapid was assassinated in Las Piñas City.
Escorial immediately surrendered to authorities and implicated his companions, including Villamor, who perished inside the NBP.
