Kidnapped Cotabato trader freed

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – A Chinese-Filipino businessman seized from his hardware store in Cotabato City last Monday afternoon was freed before dawn yesterday after his family paid a “board and lodging fee” to his kidnappers, authorities said.

The kidnap victim, Nelson Tay, 37, looked haggard and tired when he was presented to the media at the Cotabato Archbishop’s Palace yesterday morning.

“I’m okay, they treated me well, but I am so tired,” Tay told Chief Superintendent Felicisimo Khu and Cotabato City Mayor Japal Guiani at the Archbishop’s Palace here.

Both Khu and Guiani said Tay’s family paid a “board and lodging fee” in exchange for his freedom, referring to the local euphemism for ransom.

Tay was fetched by a relative in Barangay Simsiman in Pigcawaya, North Cotabato at around 4 a.m.

“We maintain the no-ransom policy; we were not privy to the negotiations,” Khu said. “What is important now is Nelson is free.”

Khu said the negotiations between Tay’s wife and the kidnappers were quick as the latter were in a hurry to evade pursuing government forces and Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas.

“We believe the ‘board and lodging fee’ was small because the kidnappers were under pressure,” Khu said.

Men armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades seized Tay last Monday as he was closing his hardware store in Cotabato City, becoming the latest victim in a rash of abductions targeting Chinese-Filipinos.

Khu said the kidnappers had been identified as belonging to a group led by Saudi Kusain, a former Muslim separatist rebel who had turned to banditry.

“They have been charged with kidnapping,” he said, but added that they remained at large.

Last February, Tay’s relative Wilson Tan, who owns a small hotel, and his daughter were kidnapped but freed after four days also after paying ransom.

Last year, a sister of another Chinese-Filipino businessman was also seized and subsequently freed.

No suspects have been arrested for the kidnappings despite police claims of an intensified crackdown against armed gangs.