Top kidnap group leader ambushed, killed in Laguna

SAN PEDRO CITY — The alleged leader of a kidnap-for-ransom group and his companion were killed in an ambush in Calamba City, Laguna, Wednesday evening.
Rolando “Rolly” Fajardo was in a car, an Audi with plate number AAZ 1435, with two other male companions when unidentified gunmen in a white car strafed their vehicle at about 7:30 p.m. in Barangay Bagong Kalsada, a busy street.

Fajardo and one his companions, identified as Thomas Andaya, were both killed in the ambush, confirmed Senior Supt. Florendo Saligao in a text message on Thursday morning.

The victims came from adjacent Los Baños town and were headed north, according to a police source.

The source said Fajardo died at the Calamba Medical Center where the victims were rushed while Andaya, who was badly injured, died hours later.
Their third companion, identified as Marcilano Batan Jr., was unhurt.
Fajardo and his brother Harold had been tagged in the 1986 kidnapping of Japanese executive Noboyuki Wakaoji.
Once considered the country’s most wanted kidnap suspect, Fajardo was arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in 2010 by National Bureau of Investigation agents upon his return to the Philippines after years of staying in Italy.

The police said it had no information about the status of Fajardo’s case or why he was moving freely since kidnapping was a non-bailable offense.

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