Red notices issued vs 3 fugitives

THE Department of the Interior and Local Government on Monday said it is intensifying its efforts to locate and apprehend three high-profile fugitives who have remained at large despite nationwide manhunt.

Interior Secretary Juanito Victor C. Remulla, Jr. confirmed that the International Criminal Police Organization has issued red notices against former Bureau of Corrections chief Gerald Q. Bantag, former police officer Rafael P. Dumlao III, and businessman Charlie Tiu Hay Ang, also known as Atong Ang, involving separate cases.

“For the information of everybody, there is a red notice against Bantag, there is a red notice against Atong Ang, there is a red notice against Dumlao,” Mr. Remulla said in a livestreamed news briefing in mixed English and Filipino.

Mr. Bantag was indicted in 2023 as the alleged mastermind behind the 2022 assassination of broadcaster Percy Lapid, while Mr. Dumlao was tagged in the 2016 kidnap-slaying case of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo.

The Department of Justice also indicted Mr. Ang in connection with the disappearance of several cockfighters last December, and he currently has standing arrest warrants in local courts.

“As for Zaldy Co, it was filed September 2025. His red notice has not been granted yet,” Mr. Remulla said, referring to the former Ako Bicol representative who fled in 2025 amid a probe into a multibillion-peso flood control scam.

Mr. Remulla said over 200,000 members of the police force are conducting operations to locate the fugitives. — Erika Mae P. Sinaking