P10-M reward offered to get ‘armed and dangerous’ Ang
Authorities on Thursday offered a P10-million reward for information that can lead to the arrest of gaming tycoon Charlie “Atong” Ang, and also revoked the gun permits issued to the controversial businessman.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Philippine National Police announced these steps to apply pressure on Ang, a day after a local court ordered his arrest as the alleged mastermind in the abduction and killing of over two dozen cockfighting aficionados from 2021 to 2022.
Country’s ‘most wanted’
The PNP said it had also tightened its monitoring of airports and seaports across the country for Ang, who faces nonbailable charges along with 17 co-accused already in custody.
“Any information leading to the conclusive arrest of Atong Ang will merit a P10-million reward. No questions asked,” Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said at a briefing, adding that the money will be drawn from the DILG’s intelligence fund.
“We can consider him the most wanted person in the Philippines now,” he said.
“Even if we say we’ve canceled his (permits for the) firearms, Atong travels with no less than 20 bodyguards all the time,’’ Remulla noted.
Six registered guns
“He’s used to facing authority and solving problems with aggressiveness (‘marahas’). So we consider him armed and dangerous,” he added.
But the secretary advised Ang not to trust his bodyguards at this point as “one of them may sell him out.”
Police Maj. Gen. Robert Alexander Morico II said PNP teams had been sent out to serve the warrant on Ang at his known properties—in Pasig City and Mandaluyong City in Metro Manila; in Lipa City, Batangas; and in Siniloan, Laguna—but were unable to find him there.
“To further facilitate the manhunt operation, we have recommended to the Chief PNP the revocation of the firearm license of Mr. Atong Ang, which the Chief PNP approved,” said Morico, director of the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).
Citing PNP records, Morico said the businessman had six registered guns—two rifles and four sidearms.
The records also showed that four of the guns were given licenses on the same day, Dec. 18, 2025, which would be expiring on July 22, 2035. The other two got theirs on Aug. 10, 2021 and Sept. 10, 2025, respectively, both valid until August 2035.
Tracker teams
Ang had a Type 5 license, which allows the holder to possess 15 or more firearms, according to a certification from the PNP’s Firearms and Explosives Office (FEO).
“We have communicated already with (his) lawyers and they are mandated to surrender this firearm to the FEO,” Morico added.
Meanwhile, the acting PNP chief, Lt. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr., said tracker teams and intelligence units had been mobilized in the manhunt for Ang.
“The PNP has placed ports of exit under heightened monitoring as part of the ongoing manhunt,” Nartatez said in a statement.
Authorities said all of Ang’s 17 coaccused in the case were already in custody on Wednesday, after Branch 26 of the Regional Trial Court of Santa Cruz, Laguna, issued a warrant for their arrest.
They included 10 police officials and seven civilians connected to Ang’s business, the CIDG said.
Ang was believed to be still in the Philippines on the day the warrant was issued.
“The most logical option for him is to surrender because the PNP is determined to comply with the arrest warrant issued by the court,” Nartatez said. “If he is indeed innocent as he has been claiming, the more that he should be encouraged to surrender to face the accusations against him.”
The National Bureau of Investigation said it had also formed teams to help serve the warrant on Ang.
Earlier media reports placed the number of missing sabungeros, or cockfighting aficionados, at 34.
However, the cases filed against Ang and the others—for multiple counts of kidnapping with homicide and serious illegal detention—accounted for only 26 victims.
