P.5M tipster’s reward for informants of King’s killers

Police deployed at the wake of Cebu businessman Richard King who was murdered in Davao City.(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

With law enforcers in Davao and Cebu coordinating, the police are hoping to make headway in the murder of Cebu businessman Richard King.

“We’re on the right track,” said Supt. Romeo Santander, head of the Cebu Intelligence and Investigation Bureau yesterday.

He said city police and counterparts in Davao City were pursuing similar theories but declined to give details.

In a phone patch interview with the police chief of Davao City, Vicente Danao Jr. said they were not discounting “business rivalry” and “personal” motives behind the June 12 shooting.

While police already have a face sketch of the gunman, based on witness accounts, Davao police are holding back a full-blown public release.

Danao said the still-unidentified assailant may be lying low in Davao, and that seeing his face in TV and newspapers may prompt him to flee.

“Just give us more time,” Danao said.

“So far, we have been tracing the background of King since he had a lot of businesses in Cebu, Davao and Boracay. He might have had rivals or enemies in these places. We still have to determine this,” Danao said.

The Cebu Provincial Police office and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Central Visayas (CIDG-7) are also directly coordinating with the police in Davao.

“We already sent a short summary profile of King that might help and assist our counterparts in Davao,” said CIDG Director Ritchie Posadas.

“I sent a team to coordinate with the family and relatives of King to determine if they had received any threats,” he said.

He said the increase in the reward money for tipsters to P500,000 would certainly encourage witnesses and informants to surface.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said he wasn’t comfortable with offering a large cash reward.
“Makuyawan ko anang reward. (The reward makes me nervous.) If the perpetrators are not caught, they will have to increase the reward. I’m just trying to be reserved about the issue,” he told reporters in a phone interview.

He said crime solution should be left to the police.

The amount of P200,000 was first offered by the King family for information leading to the capture of the perpetrators. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte later pledged P300,000 to increase it.

The mayor, who was in Manila last week, said he spoke to PNP Director Alan Purisima to ask for a speedy resolution of the murder case.

“I mentioned the need for the PNP to move faster and that we need to be sure (that whoever will be arrested are the real culprits),” he said.

The 57-year-old King had no bodyguard when he traveled to Davao to attend a business function. He was with staff and guests who were about to have dinner in the Vital C Building, when a gunman entered and fired at him about 7 p.m.

A check with the regional police in Cebu showed King had never requested for a security detail from them before.

Within Central Visayas, seven businessmen and three congressmen have requested and were given police escorts, said Senior Inspector Isagani Bajao, assistant chief of the Police Security and Protection Group from the Police Regional Office (PRO-7).

One of them was Mandaue city businessman Regan King, who is not related to the victim.

“There was someone with the same family name, Regan King, who requested for police security but it (the engagement) ended last year,” Bajao said.

By policy, a maximum of two escorts can be assigned.

Right after his death, J. King and Sons Co. Inc. released a statement mourning the loss of their “visionary chairman” and said his siblings and corporate management team would continue all operations of the head office and affiliate companies.

It credited King’s leadership for the growth of the company, which includes the Crown Regency chain of hotels.

The statement also appealed to all quarters, including the media, “to await the investigation result of the case and refrain from hurling malicious lies and accusations about Richard King.”/With Michelle Joy Padayhag and Chief of Reporters Doris Bongcac