Kidnapped 10-year-old girl rescued in Cotabato

PIGCAWAYAN, North Cotabato, Philippines – Soldiers rescued here yesterday a 10-year-old girl while her kidnappers were trying to bring her to a marshland after gunning down her father only some 50 meters away from the municipal police station.

Responding combatants of the Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion, backed by policemen and government militiamen, also nabbed one of the kidnappers, who was subsequently subjected to interrogation.

Maj. Marlow Patria, newly installed civil-military relations chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said 10-year-old Kristina Tamayo was rescued with the help of barangay officials who assisted in pursuing soldiers locate her and her captors.

Tamayo’s father, Allan, was driving her to the Montessori Elementary School here when the kidnappers blocked their path, and grabbed and forced her into a waiting getaway vehicle.

The Tamayo family runs businesses here and in a nearby town and owns a mansion along the national highway traversing this municipality.

Patria said the kidnappers repeatedly shot the elder Tamayo before fleeing and attempting to bring the girl to Barangay Simsiman, a gateway to the Liguasan Marsh, a known haven of kidnapping gangs.

The kidnappers’ getaway vehicle, however, rammed into a steel railing along the highway as responding soldiers and policemen gave chase.

The kidnappers then commandeered a tricycle but were forced to flee toward different directions after sensing that more soldiers from nearby Army detachments were closing in on them.

North Cotabato Gov. Lala Mendoza confirmed that the girl had been rescued and that soldiers were still running after her kidnappers in a nearby marsh.

Mendoza said he has ordered the North Cotabato police to identify the kidnappers and charge them in court.