Tapes in Roldan kidnap case submitted in court

The Pasig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) started hearing yesterday the kidnapping for ransom case against former Quezon City congressman and actor Dennis Roldan and his five co-accused.

Government and private prosecutors submitted evidence and documents, including the four audio tapes containing conversations between the mother of the three-year-old kidnap victim and one of the kidnappers.

Judge Agnes Carpio, of the RTC Branch 261, ordered all the tapes and documentary evidence be marked for exhibition in the next hearing scheduled on Sept. 20 at 8:30 a.m.

Roldan’s counsel, Siegfrid Fortun, told an open court that the defense would be presenting 32 witnesses during the course of the trial.

Roldan, (Mitchell Gumabao in real life), arrived at Carpio’s sala wearing an orange detainee shirt and heavily escorted by jail guards from the Pasig City jail in Barangay Nagpayong at 8:45 a.m.

During the pre-trial conference, Roldan and co-accused Noel San Andres, Rowena San Andres, Romeo Oreajada, Adrian Domingo and Octavio Garces were presented before the court.

Alberto Pagdanganan, a suspect turned state witness, was also in attendance. Another co-accused Suzette Wang, Roldan’s girlfriend and alleged mastermind, remains at large.

Roldan is accused of being behind the kidnapping of a Filipino-Chinese boy in Pasig City last Feb. 28.

After two weeks in captivity, the boy was rescued by Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER) operatives in Cubao, Quezon City. Pagdanganan claimed Wang, a friend of the boy’s parents, financed the abduction.

In a related development, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director general Arturo Lomibao asked Filipino-Chinese groups to help the police organization combat the rising number of kidnap-for-ransom incidents.

"Given the economic slowdown, maganda siguro if they can be generous enough to make more donations, like radio equipment, for example, to improve our mobility," Lomibao said.

The PNP chief said that more than the equipment, Filipino-Chinese organizations can provide valuable information that would be helpful in neutralizing kidnap-for-ransom groups.

He noted that in the last three months, there has been a rising trend in KFR incidents. In April, there were zero incidents.

Lomibao is the concurrent head of the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force, taking over from Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes. — With Cecille Suerte Felipe