Charges against mastermind, cohorts in Talisay kidnap

CHARGES of kidnapping will be filed in the Talisay City Prosecutor’s Office against four persons and the mastermind of Monday’s kidnapping of an overseas worker in Talisay City.

Regional Director Antonio Pagatpat of the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) said the mastermind is connected with a Cebu City-based government office.

“We already identified everyone who were part of the kidnapping syndicate,” he told reporters.

An  entrapment operation against the alleged kidnappers outside the Cebu Evergreen Memorial Park ended in a shootout.

One of the suspects refused to surrender and fired at the agents.

When the smoke cleared, the group leader  identified as Wane Tiaño was dead.  Ronilo Roble was arrested while three others escaped.

Tiaño purportedly demanded P50,000 from the wife of 29-year-old Rene Boy Agraviador, a Talisay City resident who returned to Cebu last January after working abroad.

Agraviador was kidnapped last Sunday along Rabaya Street in Talisay City but was rescued in last Monday’s operation.

Talisay police said they got initial information that  Tiaño is a suspect in the robbery of an M. Lhuiller pawnshop in San Roque, Talisay City last month and another pawnshop in  Naga City.

The suspects introduced themselves as police officers and threatened to file illegal drug charges against Rene Boy if they failed to pay P50,000 in ransom.

They first scheduled the payoff in the South Road Properties (SRP) then changed venue to the Cebu Evergreen Memorial Park. .

Confiscated were Tiaño’s .45 caliber pistol, the P50,000 ransom money, a cell phone, identification cards and an Armed Forces-PNP badge, one wallet, a red handkerchief with Latin words and a medal.

An NBI agent suffered a gunshot wound in his right hand. With  Chito Aragon and Gabriel C. Bonjoc