4 businessmen believed to be kidnapped in Maguindanao

MANILA, Philippines — Authorities on Saturday said they will investigate reports that four business partners based in Gen. Santos City had been kidnapped and brought to Maguindanao province.

Officials of the 36-member provincial League of Municipal Mayors (LMP) said they do not have any information yet on stories that the missing persons, Jason Cababayao, Rho Steven, Francis Wong, and Raulito Suyom Jr., had been snatched on March 29 in Sharif Aguak, Maguindanao.

The allegedly missing persons have been reportedly engaged in a construction supply venture in Gen. Santos City.

"There are no reports about that incident in the blotters of the 36 police stations in all of Maguindanao's 36 towns," a senior LMP member said.

Captain Jo-Ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, said none of their officers in battalions and brigades in Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces are aware of any such incident either.

"We've been hearing about that story since March 29, but don't have any confirmation yet as to its veracity," Petinglay said.

Senior Superintendent Rolen Balquin, director of the Cotabato City police, was said to have revealed that the four missing individuals were on their way to Cotabato City when gunmen flagged them down while at Sharif Aguak.

Petinglay said more than 2,000 soldiers, backed by combat vehicles, were still positioned in Sharif Aguak and six nearby  towns at that time, awaiting orders to return to their respective headquarters following a four-week operation against the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

Balquin's territorial jurisdiction is more than 50 kilometers away from Sharif Aguak in Maguindanao, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The Cotabato City police office is under the Region 12 headquarters based in Gen. Santos City, not with the ARMM regional police command, which has jurisdiction over Maguindanao.

Senior Superintendent Rudelio Jocson of the Maguindanao police office said he could not provide any information on the alleged kidnapping incident since investigators do not have any concrete proof that can confirm it.

Jocson had told The STAR on April 1, right in his office in Sharif Aguak, that it should be the police's Anti-Kidnapping Group in Region 12 that should speak on the issue, since it allegedly involves residents of Gen. Santos City.

"We abide by command communication protocols," Jocson said.

The Maguindanao provincial police office is located only a kilometer away from the portion of the Cotabato-Gen. Santos Highway that straddles through Sharif Aguak's town proper.

Also located along the same highway in Sharif Aguak is the headquarters of the 2nd Mechanized Battalion, whose Simba combat vehicles and armored personnel carriers were positioned along the same route until April 3.