Rice mill operator, captors spotted in N. Cotabato town

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — Local officials and government agents have spotted rice mill operator Leoncio Buenafe, who was snatched in Koronadal City last Sunday, and his heavily armed kidnappers in the Toreta area in the nearby North Cotabato town of Libungan.

According to Muslim religious leaders in North Cotabato, they have been receiving feedback that the abductors of Buenafe, whose family operates a big rice and corn mill in Noralla, South Cotabato, were supposed to bring him to the Liguasan Marsh, but balked due to the heavy presence of soldiers in strategic spots surrounding the 220,000-hectare delta.

The Toreta area in Libungan, some 40 kilometers southeast of the command headquarters here of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, is a known lair of kidnappers belonging to the notorious Pentagon gang, led by the elusive Tahir Alonto, who carries a P5-million prize on his head.

Buenafe’s abductors, led by a certain Commander Agila, have asked for a P4-million ransom in exchange for his safe release.

Agents of the 6th ID and the police commands of Region 12 and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao have been tracking down Buenafe, whose abduction has broken the lull in kidnappings in the province and surrounding areas.

Sources from North Cotabato’s business community said the military should immediately scour the Toreta area to flush out kidnappers and other criminal gangs there and prevent them from further using the area as a springboard for their heinous activities.

Kidnappers and extortionists hiding in the area, the sources said, pose serious threats to businessmen operating in the adjoining towns of Midsayap, Libungan and Pigkawayan, all in the first district of North Cotabato.

Military intelligence units in Central Mindanao have confirmed that more than a dozen kidnap victims, mostly wealthy traders, were held captive in the Toreta area during the late 1990s.

Buenafe last left his hometown of Noralla for Koronadal City last Sunday morning. His vehicle, a silver Honda CRV 4x4, was found by members of the Army’s 37th Infantry Battalion along a secluded stretch of the Cotabato-Koronadal Highway in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao the following day, prompting probers to initially suspect that he was being held captive in a guerrilla lair in the province.

Maj. Gen. Generoso Senga, 6th ID commander, said he has fielded more plainclothes operatives to confirm the reported presence of Buenafe and his captors in the Toreta area in preparation for a military rescue.