Goodah owner’s kidnappers nabbed

Agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) have arrested in Naga City two suspects in the separate kidnappings of two fastfood chain owners three years ago.

CIDG men in Bicol arrested Armando Avila and Nito Libradilla, two men wanted for the abduction of the owners of Goodies Mami House in Valenzuela and Goodah Food House in Quezon City in 1998.

Senior Superintendent Jesus Versoza, head of the CIDG’s Office of Businessmen’s Concerns, said Avila is the most wanted man in Southern Tagalog and is currently ranked 12th in the list of the country’s most wanted criminals.

Versoza said Libradilla, the other suspect, worked as Avila’s henchman.

Details of the two kidnapping cases attributed to Avila and Libradilla were not immediately available yesterday.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) expressed optimism that it would be able to rescue a Chinese businessman who was abducted in Teresa, Rizal last Sunday.

PNP chief Director General Leandro Mendoza said there were "positive deve-lopments" in their operations to rescue Guang Wai Yap, alias Jess Fong. But he refused to reveal details so as not to jeopardize the rescue mission.

Fong, who owns a piggery farm, was driving his truck with his secretary and two other employees when he was abducted by four armed men in Teresa town.

A certain "Commander Cobra" of the communist New People’s Army has called up his wife to claim responsibility for the abduction. He asked for an undetermined amount as ransom.

Meanwhile, alarmed by the rising incidents of kidnapping in the country, some 50 detectives from the Philippine National Police (PNP) have started a 10-day crash course meant to improve their skills in investigating and solving crimes.

The crash course, which is being held at the PNP headquarters at Camp Crame, was held as the country’s police force faced its biggest challenge yet — to stop kidnapping once and force all.

Chief Superintendent Lucas Managuelod, head of the PNP’s Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management, revealed that at least 41 kidnapping cases were reported in the first half of the year, nearly double the 22 reported in the same period last year.

He said authorities have solved 22, or about 54 percent, of this year’s kidnappings compared with 41 percent last year.

But he said this improvement is far from satisfactory.

"We are not satisfied with our performance. The government is not and nobody is," he said. "We must now send the message that kidnappers cannot survive the ferocity of our war against them."

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez said he is hoping the PNP’s detectives would enhance their skills in crime scene examination, scientific processing of evidence and their grasp of criminal law and investigation procedures.

He added that the training also aims to develop trained personnel in line with the creation of the National Anti-Crime Commission (NACC), a super body set up by President Arroyo recently which is led by Perez himself.

Perez stressed that the government is determined to "crush kidnappers through good police work" without violating suspects’ rights. "The days of beating people to force them to confess to crimes they did not commit is over," he said.

Police officials have complained in the past of the lack of equipment and training to cope with well-organized, well-armed and well-equipped kidnap gangs.

The Abu Sayyaf kidnappings, for example, have highlighted the shortcomings of the underfunded police force and military. The bandits, flush with ransom money from abductions last year, used speedboats to outrun their pursuers. – With reports from Jaime Laude