3 Pentagon couriers fall

COTABATO CITY — The police arrested in Midsayap, North Cotabato last Wednesday three couriers of the Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang in a foiled "partial" ransom payoff for an engineer-trader snatched almost two weeks ago.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol said Midsayap lawmen accosted the suspects after receiving the money from the family of 66-year-old engineer Bravick Araral.

Five armed men snatched Araral from his farm in Libungan, North Cotabato.

The three suspects, identified as Mike Candao Tan; Ting Sainudin, 21, alias Manrudin Sainudin; and Faisal Guialuson Mama, 28, did not resist arrest when policemen, led by Superintendent Chino Mamburam, Midsayap police chief, pounced on them.

Mamburam and his men were tipped off that the suspects were spotted in front of a gasoline station in Barrio VI in Midsayap as if waiting for someone.

The suspects were about to leave after receiving a bag containing P114,000 when Mamburam’s team accosted them.

The bag also contained the clothes Araral was wearing when he was seized, apparently to convince his family that they were, indeed, holding him captive.

The three suspects admitted that the money confiscated from them was partial payment for Araral’s "board and lodging."

The Pentagon earlier had asked for P3-million ransom from Araral’s family.

"We are warning the family of Araral not to pay ransom to the kidnappers because we will never allow it to happen in any part of North Cotabato. Paying ransom to kidnappers will only encourage more kidnappings," Piñol said. — With Ramil Bajo