Cotabato police foil kidnap try

COTABATO CITY — Local policemen foiled on Monday night an attempt by two housemaids to turn over to a kidnapping syndicate the four-year-old daughter of their employer they abducted in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat.

Senior Inspector Peraco Macacua, city police director, said the victim, Gabriela Victoria Padico, was rescued with the help of her grandmother, Fe Labuda, from her captors at the wharf here, on board a motor launch bound for Pagadian City.

"It was just fortunate that the boat has not left the port yet and so we were able to rescue the child," Macacua said.

The child’s father, Chief Inspector Renante Padico, is the police chief of Carmen, a remote town in the first district of North Cotabato.

Macacua said the maids of the Padicos — Lilibeth Salrica and Mercy Cabasag — voluntarily surrendered after sensing that policemen have located them at the upper deck of the boat.

The two were reportedly working as store helpers in a hardware store owned by the Cabico family in Barangay Upper Dansuli in Isulan, owned by the Cabico family.

Macacua said Salrico and Cabasag both admitted abducting Padico and confessed their plan to turn her over to a contact in Pagadian City.

Macacua said investigators learned about the contact between the two maids and their kidnappers through undeleted text messages they confiscated from Cabasag’s cellphone.

The Padicos are engaged in a grains business in Isulan, the capital town of Sultan Kudarat, some 90 kilometers south of this city.

The victim’s grandmother told investigators here that she learned of the abduction past 1 p.m. on Monday when she noticed that her granddaughter and the two maids were missing.

"I overheard them talking about a plan to go to Pagadian City prior to the abduction, so I immediately left for Cotabato City and asked the police to track them down at the wharf," she said.

Macacua said charges of kidnapping and illegal detention will be filed against the suspects, who are now undergoing interrogation. — John Unson, Ramil Bajo