The suspect, a certain Bonifacio Mondejar, alias Dodong, is said to belong to a fake gold and treasure hunting syndicate.
He is believed to be in hiding in the Agusan del Sur towns of Babah, Prosperidad, San Francisco or Bunawan, according to Caraga police director Alberto Rama Olario.
Olario said elements of Task Force Racer are hunting down Mondejar and his men for questioning on their alleged participation in the abduction of trader Joseph Rivale and Japanese interpreter Juanita Ohiyoma.
Authorities are also locating a Japanese businessman, who was with Rivale and Ohiyoma when they arrived here on the morning of March 22 and checked in at the Laguna Lodging House.
Olario said the Japanese trader only signed his name as "Toyota" in the lodging house’s logbook.
The group came here aboard a taxi they had rented in Davao City. The taxi driver, a certain Sol, is also being located to shed light on the incident.
Later that day, the group reportedly left the lodging house to meet their contacts for gold treasures supposedly left by Japanese soldiers in World War II. Everyone, except Rivale and Ohiyoma, returned that night.
Relatives of one Angel Abines have informed authorities that he, too, went missing after the failed gold transaction.
"We hope that this incident will serve as an eye-opener to others who are hoping against hope to strike a fortune out of the alleged treasures," Olario said. — Ben Serrano