Suspect in Rolito Go abduction surfaces, says it was he who freed victim

PNP Spokesperson Chief Supt. Heneroso Serbo releases an artist’s sketch of Rolito Go’s abductor at Camp Crame, Monday. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—One of the suspects in the kidnapping of convicted road-rage killer Rolito Go has surfaced to clear his name.

Reynaldo Tadtad, 33, of Barangay San Pedro, Sto Tomas, Batangas, faced the media on Friday, two days after learning from TV reports that he had been implicated in Go’s kidnapping from the New Bilibid Prison last August.

Tadtad, identified in reports by his nickname “Reggie,” said he only provided the hut in Barangay San Vicente where Go and his nephew Clemence Yu were taken by the kidnappers.

He said the kidnappers were only acquaintances of his and that they asked him on Aug. 16 if they could sleep over, to which he agreed.

Later that evening, he was surprised to see Go and Yu, whom he did not know at the time, and an unidentifiable masked driver with his two acquaintances, but kept mum.

Tadtad said that after hearing his acquaintances talk about killing the duo, he decided to let the victims escape and gave them bus fare to go back to Metro Manila.

Tadtad was presented by Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina, head of the National Capital Region Police Office at his office a day after Tadtad sought the help of a distant relative, Senior Supt. Danilo Maligalig of the Eastern Police District.

The NCRPO will turn over Tadtad to the Anti-Kidnapping Group. Tadtad said he was thinking applying to the Witness Protection Program.