Bodies of Maguindanao kidnap victims found

COTABATO CITY — Soldiers and policemen recovered yesterday the cadavers of two kidnap victims executed over the weekend in a remote Maguindanao town by their captors after their respective families failed to pay ransom.

Superintendent Danny Reyes, chief of the Kidapawan City police, said the decomposing cadavers of Albert Alcular and his companion, Que Den Lim, all with multiple stab and bullet wounds, were found by villagers at Midpandakan District at the border of the adjoining S.K. Pendatun and Sultan sa Barongis towns, both in Maguindanao.

Alcular was negotiating, along with Lim, for the release of his kidnapped grandson, three-year-old Ralph Ashley Alcular, in S.K. Pendatun when they themselves were abducted by the same gang, led by a certain Abo Jalil and Kamarudin Carbon.

The child was snatched in Kidapawan City on Aug. 23 by two men, one of whom was said to be the boyfriend of his nanny, Hazel Tuala.

Tuala was reportedly killed earlier by the kidnappers for fear that she would escape and report their whereabouts to authorities.

Police and military investigators said Alcular and Lim were held captive in retaliation for the rescue of the boy earlier by pursuing MILF forces in Barangay Mamisel in Sultan sa Barongis.

The rescued child was turned over by the MILF guerrillas to his parents by lawyer Abdul Dataya, chairman of the MILF’s Ad-Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG) and his military counterpart, Marine Gen. Mohammad Ben Dolorfino, at the headquarters here of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team.

The AHJAG, composed of MILF and military representatives, is helping the government monitor the presence of criminals and terrorists in known rebel strongholds.

The IMT, which is composed of 60 soldiers from Malaysia, Brunei, and civilian representatives from Libya, has been helping oversee the government-MILF ceasefire in Mindanao since September 2004.

Sources in the police intelligence community said the captors of Alcular and Lim, could have executed them right away after their families refused to pay ransom.

Reyes said the cadavers of Alcular and Lim were found in a grassy spot and were immediately brought to Pikit, North Cotabato and turned over to their relatives.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu was quick to disown the groups of Jalil and Carbon, asserting that both of them were not members of the front and that they have long been hunted by guerrillas helping impose the ceasefire in many hostile areas in the Liguasan Marsh.

Kabalu said the two kidnappers are known henchmen of Pentagon Gang leader Mayangkang Saguile, who carries a P2-million reward on his head.