Kato group behind kidnapping in N. Cotabato, says AFP

Ameril Umbra Kato, right, the commander of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, the breakaway faction of the largest Filipino Muslim rebel group, leads his men in prayers inside his rebel stronghold in Maguindanao Tuesday. AP

ALEOSAN, North Cotabato—The military has tagged renegade Moro rebels as behind the abduction of a relative of a North Cotabato town mayor on Saturday.

Colonel Leopoldo Galon, speaking for the Eastern Mindanao Command, quoted North Cotabato Deputy Governor for Muslim Affairs Edris Gandalibo as telling the local crisis management committee that those responsible for the kidnapping of Romy Cabaya, 23, house help of Aleosan town Mayor Loredo Cabaya and student of Southern Mindanao Colleges in nearby Midsayap town, were followers of Ameril Umra Kato, leader of a Moro Islamic Liberation Front breakaway group.

Kato, leader of the newly formed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, has long been wanted for attacking civilian communities in five towns of North Cotabato in 2008.

Mayor Cabaya said the kidnappers were after his son Jason, but mistook Romy for him.

Romy had attended a village fiesta on Friday evening and was heading for home at past midnight on board a passenger motorcycle called “habal-habal” when gunmen on board motorcycles and riding a pickup truck flagged down the victim’s vehicle in Barangay (village) Crossing Dualing.

The victim was transferred to the pickup truck that sped toward Barangay Dungguan, an outskirt village known as a kidnappers’ and lawless elements’ hideout.

Responding policemen and soldiers found the pickup truck torched by the suspects.

Mayor Cabaya has appealed to the abductors to free Romy, saying the boy was poor and works as house help to support his education.—Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao