Jules’ kids walk to freedom

The two kidnapped children of Negros Occidental Rep. Julio Ledesma IV walked to freedom before dawn yesterday as rumors quickly spread that the wealthy congressman paid at least P5 million for their safe release.

While the kidnappers remained at large, the Philippine National Police (PNP) vowed to pursue them, saying investigators are eyeing one particular group.

Witnesses said four un-identified men left Cristina Ledesma, 10, and her brother Julio Carlos Tomas, 5, near the corner of Tindalo street and Gil Puyat Avenue in Makati City at around 4:30 a.m., Makati City police chief Superintendent Jovito Gutierrez told reporters.

Clad in shorts, t-shirts and slippers and carrying plastic bags containing their clothes, the children were told to walk to the nearby Makati Medical Center immediately after they stepped out of a red sedan.

They reached the hospital after stopping briefly at a nearby hamburger stand to ask for directions, and approached a hospital guard to ask permission to use the telephone.

When the unidentified guard realized that the two were the kidnapped Ledesma children, he called the police. A special weapons and tactics team was dispatched to secure the hospital.

Forty minutes later, Ledesma and his actress-fiancée Assunta de Rossi arrived at the hospital in a sport utility vehicle to bring the children to their Alexandra Towers residence.

On boarding the vehicle, the children hugged De Rossi before they sped off to Pasig City with their police escorts.

The children later claimed they were "treated well" by their abductors although they were not allowed to leave a room that was furnished only with a bed, an electric fan and a television set.

The children said they had to travel some two or three hours while blindfolded before they were brought to the house that was surrounded by "sounds of nature," leading probers to suspect that the hideout was outside Metro Manila.

Their abductors also always had their faces covered to prevent the children from identifying them.

The younger victim said he did not like the kidnappers because they lied to him when they promised they would allow him to talk to his father, whom the abductors contacted once or twice through their cell phones.

The two children were also ordered to shout through the phone "Daddy, please save us" in an attempt to scare the lawmaker.

But Ledesma yesterday went on radio to publicly thank the kidnappers for sparing the lives of his children although he resolutely refused to answer questions on whether ransom was paid. No arrests have been made.

"I thank you for not harming my children," said Ledesma, who announced plans to set up an anti-kidnapping center to be funded through private donations.

"I had not realized how big organized crime is," he said. "They are professionals."

He said he would ask the children’s schools to send tutors to his home over the next three months to allow them to recover from their ordeal before returning to the classroom.

"This is not political," Ledesma also said of the kidnapping, saying he believed the perpetrators are from a criminal syndicate.

Police probe

But PNP sources said anti-kidnapping agents have not discounted the possibility that the abduction was politically motivated. Police are also looking into the possibility that some members of Ledesma’s household staff may be involved in the crime.

"(But) we could not just disclose ongoing operational matters at this time," said PNP spokesman Senior Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil, adding that police are deploying more security personnel for the Ledesma family.

"Despite the release of the victims, our operations continue to get the suspects," Bataoil added.

Meanwhile, Metro Manila police chief Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco thanked volunteers of the police’s Magic Eye program for the "successful containment of crime syndicates in Metro Manila."

In a statement, Velasco quoted Ledesma as thanking the police, military, Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay and the media for the safe release of the Ledesma children.

He also reported the arrest of five suspects in a separate attempted kidnapping case in Quezon City and five suspected carnappers in Caloocan City but reported no arrest in the still unsolved kidnapping of the Ledesma children.

The two children were snatched by heavily armed men while they were on their way to their respective exclusive schools in San Juan, Metro Manila on Friday morning.

Leads to crack case

At Malacañang, President Arroyo called Ledesma to thank him for cooperating with the police during the entire incident and assured him police will soon "crack the case."

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, for his part, thanked the media for heeding the President’s appeals to tone down the coverage of the unfolding event while the two victims were in the hands of their abductors.

"But our emphasis now is to push the police operations and (PNP chief Director) General (Hermogenes) Ebdane said they already have leads that they were following up and they are confident that they would be able to crack the case," Bunye told Palace reporters.

The children were seized by at least four armed men riding two vans which intercepted the victims’ Mark III Ford van on A. Mabini and Burgos streets in Barangay Addition Hills, San Juan at about 7:30 a.m. last Friday.

Police said two vehicles - a maroon Isuzu Hilander with license plates WDC 549 and a Starex van - blocked the children’s van and armed men came out and fired at the van’s tires to deflate them.

The attackers also strafed nearby homes to prevent local residents from coming out to help the children.

The children were then bundled into one of the kidnappers’ vehicles, leaving the children’s driver and nanny behind.

The young Julio Carlos Tomas is a kindergarten pupil at the Xavier School while Christina is a Grade 4 student at the Immaculate Concepcion Academy, both in San Juan.

The Ledesma’s family driver, Randy Barcelona, 28, was wounded by glass shards from a smashed windshield of the Ford van, while the children’s nanny, identified as Jennyln Tesado, 25, was unhurt.

Barcelona and Tesado were temporarily held by the police for tactical interrogation.

The driver, who has been with the Ledesmas for about one month only, told the police that the gunmen accosted him and at gun point, asked for the ignition key.

When he refused to budge, the attackers then fired at the tires and smashed the windshield on the driver’s side with the butt of an Armalite rifle.

For her part, Tesado said the gunmen ordered her out of the van. She said she hid behind the vehicle as the suspects gathered the children and transferred them to the Starex van.

Tesado said she later dashed through an open gate and sought refuge inside the house.

Initial police investigation showed that the kidnappers’ Hilander fled towards Wilson street while the Starex drove down Burgos street.

Subsequent verification also showed that license plate WDC 549 belonged to a 1998 model, four-door Nissan Sentra owned by a certain Antonio Daza of 47 18th Avenue Murphy, Quezon City, indicating it was stolen and used by the kidnappers to mislead investigators. - With Marichu Villanueva, AP and AFP