MANGALDAN, Pangasinan ? The grandson of the mayor here was kidnapped, after all.

The police finally admitted this in a news conference here on Monday after refusing to confirm last week?s kidnapping of Cedric Romero, 8, grandson of Mayor Herminio Romero.

The admission came following the confession of one the suspects and the arrest of two others in separate police operations on March 14.

The young Romero was kidnapped on March 11 while he was on his way to school. The child was freed by his kidnappers shortly after midnight on March 14 after the family paid ransom.

Chief Supt. Ramon Gatan, Ilocos regional police director, said police operatives are now hunting down three more suspects.

?The arrested suspects are now in the custody of the Mangaldan police and we have already filed kidnapping charges against them. Pursuit operations are going on for the three other remaining suspects and it?s only a matter of time before all of them will be facing charges for the crime that they have committed,? Gatan said.

Those arrested were Russel Ydia, an employee of the municipal government and detailed as the mayor?s driver; Jessie Aquino, a former policeman, who worked as the mayor?s bodyguard; and Oscar Tiosen, who acted as the group?s negotiator.

Mayor Romero said his grandson was on his way to the Cinderella Elementary School in a pedicab when he was kidnapped.

?He?s been doing it for almost a year now because we knew that no one will touch him,? the mayor said. But that day, he said, quoting his grandson, a man also rode in the pedicab and asked that he be taken to Nibaliw-Tebag, a village far from school.

When they reached the place, the man took the boy and both of them rode a tricycle. At 11:30 a.m. that day, Romero said he received a call from the kidnappers demanding P3 million for the release of his grandson.

Romero said he did not hesitate to report to police and designated his son and the boy?s father, Christopher Romero, to negotiate.

The suspects later agreed to the Romero?s family?s counter-offer of P510,000.

Police said that after several payoff attempts, the ransom money was finally received by Tiosen at 2 p.m. on March 13 at the Macayug Bridge in neighboring San Jacinto town.

Romero?s grandson was released shortly after midnight on March 14 in Barangay Alacan in San Fabian town.

Barba said that the breakthrough that led to the arrest of the suspects was when Ydia confessed to the mayor on March 14 about his involvement in the kidnapping. He said Ydia surrendered his P35,000 share from the ransom to the mayor.

At 4 p.m. on the same day, Aquino was arrested in an eatery in Sta. Barbara town. Some P104,000, believed to be part of the ransom, was recovered from him.

Tiosen was arrested six hours later in a restaurant in Calasiao town. Seized from him was P20,000, which was also believed to be part of his share from the ransom.

Gatan apologized for imposing a news blackout on the kidnapping.