Cagayan kidnap brains arrested

TUGUEGARAO CITY – The suspected mastermind behind the 2001 kidnapping of a wealthy Filipino-Chinese businesswoman here was finally arrested last weekend.

Senior Superintendent Jude Santos, Cagayan police director, said Joey Jose, who allegedly plotted the abduction of businesswoman Editha Chua, on Aug. 15, 2001, had undergone plastic surgery to elude arrest but was finally apprehended by a joint police team in Rodriguez, Rizal last Saturday.

Ranked ninth on the list of the region’s most wanted persons, Jose, 40, who used several aliases such as John Mark Bautista Quintana, carried a P100,000 reward for his arrest.

Santos, who was the regional police intelligence officer at the time of the kidnapping, said Jose managed to change his identity in his driver’s license and other personal iden­tification documents.

“But we were able to track him down when three of his cohorts were apprehended earlier,” he said.

“We want to give credit to our colleagues in Rodriguez, Rizal for their efforts leading to the arrest of the suspect,” he said.

Santos said two more suspects in the kidnapping remain at large.

Police records show that six men barged into the Chua residence here and seized the businesswoman, leaving her husband unconscious as he was struck with a gun.

Police rescued Chua at a police checkpoint a few hours later. His kidnappers, however, managed to escape the police dragnet.

The Chuas are engaged in the wholesale business and run grocery stores here.