13th top kidnap suspect nabbed

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has arrested the country’s 13th most wanted kidnap-for-ransom gang leader who had been linked to several incidents in Marawi City.

Suspect Ambrudin Macasilang, who carried a P500,000 bounty on his head, was flown from Cagayan de Oro City to Manila yesterday afternoon by NBI agents on a Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight.

Macasilang and his NBI escorts arrived at the bureau’s headquarters on Taft Avenue in Manila at 5:20 p.m.

Macasilang will be presented to President Arroyo today by NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco and NBI intelligence officials under Oscar Embido.

Sources said it was Macasilang’s wife, whose name was not immediately available, who revealed the suspected kidnapper’s whereabouts to authorities.

"The wife decided to contact the NBI for fear that her husband would be killed by elements of the NAKTF (National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force) once he is arrested," an agent said.

Macasilang’s wife contacted Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) chief Persida Acosta, who coordinated with the NBI to effect Macasilang’s arrest.

The source did not explain why Macasilang’s wife was afraid her husband would be killed by the NAKTF.

Another agent claimed Macasilang was monitored to have been staying at his residence in Lanao del Sur since Friday, when his wife began coordinating with the authorities.

With the information provided by the suspect’s wife, the NBI agents secured a copy of the warrant for Macasilang’s arrest and served the arrest order. Macasilang did not try to evade arrest, the NBI agent said.

Shortly after the suspect was arrested, five NBI agents brought him directly to the airport and proceeded to Manila.

"The people at the airport said we had some nerve going there to arrest a suspect," said an NBI agent who participated in the arrest. "It was good that Macasilang’s family didn’t gang up on us."