119 DAYS IN CAPTIVITY: Labor exec freed in botched payoff

DAVAO CITY - A female senior officer of the Department of Labor and Employment in Region 11 was abandoned by her kidnappers in a botched ransom payoff in Sarangani Sunday morning, authorities said.

The victim, Lina Madrazo, 63, was abducted last Oct. 9 by armed men in her family's farm in Banaybanay, Davao Oriental. She spent about 119 days in captivity.

Madrazo's kidnappers initially demanded a ransom of P3 million, but later reduced the sum to P500,000.

Her brother, Raul Tolentino, was supposed to deliver the ransom in Barangay Malandag in Malungon, Sarangani at about 4 a.m. last Sunday. He was also instructed not to inform authorities about the payoff and to go to the release site alone.

But unknown to Tolentino, Davao City Mayor Benjamin de Guzman, accompanied by agents of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), trailed his pick-up truck until he reached Malungon.

At the release site, Tolentino saw an L-300 van and from it, a bandana-wearing man, followed by his sister, disembarked.

But before Tolentino could hand over the ransom, the kidnappers rushed to leave the place aboard their van.

The kidnappers had apparently sensed the presence of De Guzman and the PAOCTF agents who, as the abductors fled, came out from hiding and helped Tolentino and Madrazo who has considerably lost weight.

De Guzman said that although Madrazo's family kept the abduction from authorities, he tasked the PAOCTF to conduct surveillance on the victim's relatives.

Three days before the supposed payoff, "unusual movements" were monitored among Madra-zo's relatives, prompting De Guzman and the PAOCTF operatives to follow Tolentino last Sunday.

The kidnappers reportedly hired the L-300 van from a passenger terminal in General Santos City. - With Mike Frialde