By Lynde Salgados
Correspondent
THE city coffer of Cagayan de Oro recently provided a P2-million reward for the exemplary silver medal finish of Mayor Oscar Moreno’s boxing protege Carlo Paalam in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Now city hall is ready to bleed for another P2 million on Monday as a bounty for anyone who can lead to the arrest of the still-unidentified men who executed the eldest son of Congressman Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy in a cold-blooded manner.
As expected, Moreno again drew flak from netizens for raising such a big amount for an individual’s concern, though Rep. Uy from the city’s first district is a close friend and Moreno’s political ally.
Giving cash reward for the crime suspects’ heads earlier come full circle when deputy speaker Rufus Rodriguez came up with P300,000 for the apprehension of the two men in a motorcycle who allegedly hurled an unexploded grenade at the Rodriguezes’ residence in Barangay Nazareth.
At that time, Rodriguez was rumored to challenge Rep. Uy for the city’s mayoral post in the May 2022 elections.
Prompted by another mayoral aspirant Pompee La Viña’s constant sniping of Uy’s name over the radio for what La Viña himself termed as Ozamiz-style gimmickry, the Barangay Carmen-based congressman went to pitch in another P300,000 for the grenade throwers arrest, if only to show that he has nothing to do with it.
“Why giving [sic] reward, di ba trabaho man kana sa mga pulis nga gidoblehan ang sweldo? Dawbi, kon pobre ang gipatay walay reward? That’s an insult and a source of corruption since P2 million is not a small amount,” were just among the points raised by netizens in their social media posts and comments.
Klarex’s son Roland Sherwin ‘Tawee’ Uy, 45, and their caretaker Samuel Pabalan, 70 were murdered in their family-owned quarry site in Barangay Pagatpat, Cagayan de Oro on November 11.
Like in the grenade-throwing incident, Tawee’s perpetrators also came in a motorcycle similar to that of the infamous riding-in-tandem executioners.
Cagayan de Oro City Police Office spokesperson Major Evan Viñas said a total of nine bullets were received by Tawee and the caretaker, causing their instantaneous death.
“The brutal, cruel, senseless, and utterly barbaric killings must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. The perpetrators ― together with the brains ― must be held to account for these dastardly acts,” said Moreno in his decision to come up with the P2-million reward.
