Girl released nine hours after kidnapping

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Teamwork between lawmen and local officials in Pikit, North Cotabato, led to the release of a seven-year-old kidnap victim nine hours after she was taken by armed men, the military reported Tuesday.

Brigadier General Reynaldo Ardo, the Army’s 6th Infantry Division commander, said Keshia Jel Navarro, a first grader at the Pikit elementary School was abandoned by her captors at around 9:30 p.m. Monday following a coordinated civil-military operation with the involvement of local government units.

Ardo said the report of a kidnapping prompted Pikit Mayor Sumulong Sultan and his wife, provincial board member Dulia Sultan, to organize a “crisis committee,” tapping the services of village officials and their paramilitary forces.

Board member Sultan, who acted as “chief negotiator” while police and military operatives were on a pursuit mission for the safe recovery of the victim, said the kidnappers were forced to escape and decided to leave behind their young captive in Balong, a village on the outskirts of Pikit.

Navarro was turned over safely to her school teacher-mother, Elsie. The girl has been declared by family members as “unharmed and same as usual.”

Mayor Sultan said the Navarros were ordinary residents, not the type regarded by many as “kidnappables.”

Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Hao, commander of the 7th Infantry Battalion, said pursuing troops were aided by sniffer dogs.

“The sniffing dogs that were leading the pack of pursuing troopers could have scared the kidnappers off,” Hao said.

Originally posted at 12:36 pm | Tuesday, September 20, 2011