Cotabato kidnap suspect nabbed

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  – Soldiers and civilian volunteers arrested yesterday in Maguindanao a suspect in last week’s kidnapping of a female gasoline station owner and her secretary in Libungan, North Cotabato.

Col. Modesto Asto, public affairs chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the suspect, Samudin Panayaman, was nabbed in Barangay Gayunga, Northern Kabuntalan town.

Asto said the arrest of Panayaman was part of the military and police’s continuing pursuit of the kidnappers of 70-year-old businesswoman Annie Datuwata and her employee, a certain Christabelle.

Armed men onboard a tinted, air-conditioned van barged into Datuwata’s gasoline station in Libungan town on the night of Oct. 2, held up the cashier and then seized the businesswoman and her aide.

The vehicle was later found abandoned near the swampy border of Maguindanao and North Cotabato.