Central Mindanao officials fear surge in kidnaps

COTABATO CITY – Kidnappings of wealthy residents of Central Mindanao are feared to escalate as next year’s elections near.

Elected officials and other leaders in two Maguindanao towns where Chinese traders were recently abducted, said they are aware that criminal elements supporting their rivals were behind the spate of kidnappings in their respective areas.

Since 1990, kidnappings in Central Mindanao have mounted during election periods, with some alleged notorious kidnappers even throwing their hats in the political arena.

Among these alleged kidnappers was Musa Ali of Kabuntalan, Maguindanao, who repeatedly ran for councilor but lost.

Ali was gunned down by suspected government intelligence agents near the public market here last year, two years after he voluntarily turned himself in to then Interior and Local Government Secretary Robert Barbers.

Datu Tucao Mastura, former mayor of Sultan Kudarat town who is known for his tough stance against kidnappers, said the recent abductions of three Chinese residents in his town were probably meant to embarrass the leadership of the Mastura clan, who wields strong political clout in the area.

"These kidnappers could be aiming to discredit us, create the impression that we are weak leaders and are helpless in maintaining peace and order in our towns," Mastura said.

Mastura was instrumental in working out the release, with the help of the Marine-led Mindanao Area 1 Unit here of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force and the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, of kidnapping victims Al Vincent Uy, Vicente Yu and Michael Ang, who were separately snatched in different parts of the region.

Mastura, who has allegedly executed more than 20 kidnappers in Sultan Kudarat alone, claimed that most of the men behind the three abductions were associated with his political rivals.

In Upi, a hinterland town in Maguindanao, local officials are convinced that last Wednesday’s abduction of trader Arthur Yap in the area was meant to embarrass the leadership of the equally influential Sinsuat family.

Yap was snatched from his house in the Upi town proper and dragged into a vehicle which lawmen later found abandoned in a secluded corn farm.

He was last seen being dragged by his kidnappers toward the boundary of Upi and Datu Odin Sinsuat towns, known bailiwicks of the Sinsuat family.

Datu Michael Sinsuat, mayor of Upi and chairman of the municipal peace and order council, said Yap’s abductors could have been hired by his political adversaries. He did not elaborate.

He conceded, however, that past kidnappings in Maguindanao were deliberately pulled off to raise funds for political purposes.

"We have been receiving feedback that one of the purposes of these kidnappings is to raise campaign funds. We are puzzled why kidnappings escalate as elections near," Sinsuat said.

Army and police intelligence sources hinted that there, indeed, are some unscrupulous people who have used kidnappings to bankroll political campaigns.

Kidnappings were pioneered here in 1990 by slain kidnap gang leader Abugado Bago alias "Commander Mubarak," who was tagged as the brains behind the abduction of 87 mostly Chinese traders in Central Mindanao.

Mubarak’s group reportedly raked in some P200 million in ransom money during his reign of terror which ended with his death in a shootout with Marines on Dec. 7, 1992 in his hideout in Pantukan, Davao del Norte.

Sources from the local political and religious communities have confirmed that 22 people who belong to Mubarak’s group are now elective officials in different towns in Central Mindanao and may still seek reelection next year.