MILF rebs seize trader, kill 3 in village attack

COTABATO CITY – Suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels kidnapped a Filipino-Chinese trader in Shariff Kabunsuan and opened fire at a village in North Cotabato, killing three residents, including a five-year-old boy, authorities said.

The guerrillas seized trader Wilfredo Chew Thursday night, but abandoned him after a brief firefight with responding soldiers and policemen.

Chew survived the crossfire unscathed by jumping into a five-meter ravine.

The foiled kidnapping came just two days after text messages circulated in Central Mindanao that rouge Moro guerrillas would kidnap businessmen to raise funds to buy food and ammunition.

Chew and his wife were on their way home to North Upi, Shariff Kabunsuan, where they operate a corn buy-and-sell business, from this city when armed men flagged down their vehicle on a secluded stretch of the Cotabato-North Upi Highway.

“The gunmen took Mr. Chew and were to bring him somewhere when we learned about the kidnapping. It was through the prompt reaction of the police, the military and civilian volunteers that we managed to rescue him,” said Senior Inspector Martin Aquino, North Upi police chief.

Aquino said the kidnappers, armed with assault rifles and clad in fatigue combat outfits, fled with the mobile phones, wallets and other valuables of the Chew couple.

“The couple are safe now,” Aquino said.

In Midsayap, North Cotabato, meanwhile, MILF rebels, escaping after a brief encounter with soldiers, opened fire at a village, killing three residents, yesterday.

Senior Inspector Renante Cabico, Midsayap police chief, identified the fatalities as Ali Mentang Penen, 35; Adtuka Dimaloloy, 32; and Dimaloloy’s five-year-old nephew, Tongan Dimaloloy, who were just visiting their relatives in Barangay Tugal when the incident happened.

Quoting barangay officials, Cabico said the rebels and soldiers also pounded each side with grenade projectiles, forcing some 30 families to flee their homes.

Police and military investigators said the rebels sprayed bullets on the fleeing civilians after six of their colleagues were killed and four others were wounded.

Col. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the guerrillas who attacked patrolling soldiers in Barangay Mudsing were followers of wanted MILF leader Ameril Ombra Kato.

Kato, chief of the MILF’s 105th Base Command, carries a P10-million bounty for leading bloody attacks on more than a dozen villages at the boundary of Midsayap and Aleosan towns in North Cotabato after the aborted Aug. 5 signing of the controversial memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain by the government and MILF peace panels.