The increase in bounty means a bigger chance of solving the killings.

This was the reaction of Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. yesterday to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan's adding P500,000 to the P2 million bounty offered for information that would lead to the arrest of the killers of Board Member Renato Malabor and his bodyguard Leody “Butch” Jomilla, 52, in Isabela, Sunday.

With a bigger bounty, there is a big possibility that somebody will share information with the police, the governor said.

The additional P500,000 will be taken from the salaries of the board members, Vice Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said.

Marañon said the reward may be bigger than the amount paid the gunman tasked to kill Malabor.

Investigators from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group from Camp Crame have beefed up probers of the Special Investigation Task Group Malabor.

Marañon also welcomed the ongoing parallel investigation being conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation into the killing of Malabor and Jomilla.

I hope they can solve it in the quickest possible way, he said.

NBI Special Investigator Enrico Cabero said they conducted a parallel probe of the incident, because it was a high profile case.

Cabero also said they are pursuing some leads in their investigation, although he did not elaborate, as they are now in the process of identifying the perpetrators.

The NBI is looking into the involvement of five to six suspects in the assassination of Malabor.

The Task Group Malabor is now in the process of getting the sworn statements of five witnesses.

Police investigations showed that the gunman used “special bullets” in killing Malabor and Jomilla. Three empty shells of a 9mm pistol and an empty cartridge of a .45 caliber pistol were recovered at the scene of incident.*GPB

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