Police eye Kuratong Baleleng, Bucala gangs in kidnapping of Ledesma kids

Police are eyeing at least two kidnap groups in the Sept. 13 abduction in San Juan of two young children of Negros Occidental Rep. Julio Ledesma IV.

Citing the military-precision with which the kidnapping was carried out on a busy street San Juan, the investigators expressed belief that the perpetrators could possibly be communist guerrillas or former soldiers and policemen.

The investigators theorized that the Ledesma children — Cristina, 10, and her brother Carlos Tomas, 5 — could have been seized by either the Kuratong Baleleng gang, which was mainly composed of rogue soldiers, or the Bucala gang made up of New People’s Army rebels.

The investigators admitted, however, that catching the culprits would not be easy due to lack of concrete clues.

While they asserted that they have pictures of some suspects in the files, they pointed out that arresting them would not be easy as the suspects could have already altered their appearances.

"We have their pictures in our files, but chances are they don’t look like their former selves anymore," a detective of the Eastern Police District said.

The Ledesma children were on their way to their respective schools in San Juan when armed men blocked their van at the intersection of Burgos and Mabini streets in Barangay Addition Hills, bundled the youngsters and transferred them to their getaway vehicle.

The victims were freed on Sept. 17 near the Makati Medical Center amid rumors of payment of unspecified amount of ransom.

Ledesma credited his children’s release to his fiancee, actress Assunta de Rossi, even as he insisted that the negotiators employed what he called the "tried and tested formula."

A source at the EPD said the congressman shelled out P5 million for the freedom of his children.

The source also said it was possible that remnants of the Kuratong Baleleng gang, after lying low for some time following the death of several of their colleagues in encounters with law enforcers, have resumed their criminal operations again.

This theory was bolstered by the government crackdown on the gang’s rice smuggling operations in Ozamiz City.

The source said the crackdown deprived the gang members of a lucrative source of income to support the expensive lifestyles they picked up during the height of their kidnapping activities.

The source also said the gang was being rocked by a leadership crisis following the death of their leader, Renato Parohinog, who was shot dead early this year by a lone gunman on United Nations Avenue in Manila.

The killing has remained unsolved.

The Kuratong-Baleleng leadership was being contested by one of Parohinog’s brothers and another gang member.

For lack of money, several members of the Kuratong-Baleleng joined up with other kidnap groups still active in Metro Manila and the provinces, the source said.

Meanwhile, police probers also believed that the Bucala group resumed its kidnap-for-ransom operations after it was included by Washington in its list of foreign terrorists and assets frozen, particularly in The Netherlands.

The sources said the Bucala gang has to raise money at all costs to support Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Ma. Sison, his wife and son, and other leaders of the communist insurgency movement in the Philippines who have been living in exile in The Hague.