Maguindanao rice trader abducted

COTABATO CITY – The son of a former barangay (village) official in the municipality of Ampatuan, where the infamous 2009 Maguindanao massacre took place, was abducted by suspected members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), the police said Wednesday.

Senior Inspector Ronald de Leon, police chief of Ampatuan town, said Kenneth Cabrera, 25, was tending to the family’s rice and corn trading shop in Barangay Kauran when he was abducted by an undetermined number of suspected BIFF rebels around 4 p.m. Tuesday.

De Leon said the armed men dragged the victim to a getaway car parked a few meters away from the store.

Cabrera is a son of former Kauran village councilor Rafael Cabrera.

De Leon said policemen who went after the abductors recovered the getaway car—a grey Toyota van—in Barangay Salman, where 32 journalists and several members of the Mangudadatu clan were murdered and buried en masse by armed men allegedly led by members of the Ampatuan family, particularly Andal Jr.

In pointing to the BIFF as responsible for the Cabrera abduction, De Leon said the police had long received intelligence information that the man was being targeted for abduction.

But de Leon said the reason for that remained unclear to this day and the police were uncertain if the abduction was for ransom as no demand had been relayed to the family.