Soldiers, cops rescue 19-year-old from kidnap gang in North Cotabato

MIDSAYAP, North Cotabato – Despite being preoccupied with renegade Moro rebels in the nearby towns of Pikit and Aleosan, soldiers and policemen here had successfully forced a kidnap gang to free their victim – the 19-year-old son of a retired soldier – on Saturday evening.

Supt. Reynante Delos Santos, the police chief here, said soldiers from the 40th Infantry Battalion and local policemen had put up a roadblock after being alerted on the abduction of Mark Anthony Baya (not Bayan as earlier reported) by car-riding kidnappers in Barangay (village) Tumbras around 7:20 p.m.

Delos Santos said Baya – the son of retired soldier and now Tumbras village councilor Balong Baya – was helping tend the family’s buy and sell shop when snatched at gunpoint by two men armed with pistols.

He said the gunmen dragged the victim into a gray car, which sped off toward nearby Datu Piang in Maguindanao.

“The timely information reached the police through the bantay-bayan (neighborhood watch) and authorities responded just in time,” he said.

He said soldiers and policemen put up a roadblock in Tumbras and nearby Nabalawag village, forcing the kidnappers to detour and took another route towards Datu Piang.

“Soldiers saw them and fired warning shots. A chase was already put up and all of these actions forced the suspects to abandon the victim in Barangay Malingao at 7:45 p.m.,” delos Santos said.

It was in the Malingao village that Baya was recovered, less than 30 minutes after being kidnapped, he said.

The police and military action against the kidnappers was conducted amid military operations against Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters gunmen, who attacked villages in the borders of Aleosan and Pikit towns on Friday.

Three BIFF members have so far been killed in the clashes while two soldiers were also injured.

In Zamboanga City, suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen also abandoned a 45-year-old woman on Thursday, whom they earlier abducted from Tampilisan, Zamboanga del Norte on August 3.

As this developed, authorities reported the arrest of a kidnap suspect, said to be involved in the kidnapping several months ago of Salug, Zamboanga Sibugay Mayor Jeffrey Lim and other victims from that province, on the same day.

Senior Superintendent Jose Chiquito Malayo, Zamboanga City police chief, identified the freed victim as Viviana Acas of Barangay Situbo in Tampilisan.

Quoting the victim, Malayo said she was abducted by four armed men aboard a bus while she was heading home from Liloy town, also in Zamboanga del Norte.

“She was forced to board another bus for Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay and then transferred to another vehicle. They were also demanding that the woman produce some amount for her liberty,” Malayo said.

He said Acas was only able to produce the money in her pocket, which was P7,000 there and then.

The abductors, Malayo said, held on to her as they demanded more.

“She was held for six days here before releasing her (on August 8),” Malayo said.

Acas and Malayo were mum if ransom had been paid to the abductors.

Malayo also declined to provide additional detail on the identity or location of the suspects.

“We cannot release yet the identities and exact place as our enforcers are trying to capture them,” he said.

In Zamboanga Sibugay, Lt. Col. Yegor Rey Baroquillo Jr., commander of the 44th Infantry Battalion, described the collared kidnap as the head of “a notorious gang that operates in Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga Sibugay.

Baroquillo said Sehar Muloc, the prime suspect in Lim’s kidnapping, was arrested by joint elements of the Naval Intelligence and Security Group, the 102nd Infantry Brigade and the Zamboanga Sibugay police office near the Pasalubong Center in Poblacion, Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay past noon of August 8.

Baraquillo said Muloc, also known as “Red Eye,” would face charges of kidnapping and illegal detention.

“His other victims include Reynaldo Drapeza of Bulawan, Payao, Zamboanga del Sur; Joel Indino Jr., a student of Zamboanga City; and 9-year old boy Randelle Talania of Barangay Namnama in Titay town, Zamboanga Sibugay,” he said.

Muloc is now under police custody.

Lim said he was happy over Muloc’s arrest and was awaiting police investigators to get his testimony.

(Reports filed by Edwin Fernandez, Williamor Magbanua and Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao)