Kidnappers of North Cotabato trader demand P5-M ransom

PIKIT, North Cotabato - Kidnappers, whom the military suspects are "lost command" members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), have asked for a P5-million ransom in exchange for the release of a farmer-trader they have kept captive since April 17, police said yesterday.

The victim, Marcelino Cañete, 62, a resident of this town, was abducted by a group of armed men, some of whom had MILF flags stitched to their uniforms, while en route to Barangay Kulambugan here.

But Senior Superintendent Alex Paul Monteagudo, North Cotabato police director, said a local crisis management committee, which is working out Cañete's release, remains firm on its "no-ransom policy."

According to Monteagudo, police and Army intelligence agents are now verifying the identities of the kidnappers, led by a certain "Commander Master," for the filing of kidnapping charges against them.

"We have been closely coordinating with (Cañete's) family," he said.

The Army's 6th Infantry Division in Cotabato City said the kidnappers could be holding Cañete in marshlands here, which are covered by the government-MILF ceasefire, to refrain lawmen from running after them.

"That has always been the practice. Once the victim is already inside an acknowledged MILF territory, the police start to encounter constraints in running after them," said a key official of the 6th ID.

Another kidnapping group, led by a certain Magtanggol Alonto, is keeping construction firm owner Genaro Torqueza and his driver, Avelino Alegado, who were snatched while cruising a secluded stretch of the Davao-Cotabato Highway in Kabacan town last February.