ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – A brother of the vice mayor here foiled an attempt by unidentified gunmen to kidnap him Thursday night.
Doctor Armando Ituralde, 64, elder brother of Vice Mayor Cesar Ituralde, was in his clinic in Barangay Talon-Talon when one of the suspects, who pretended to be a patient, tried to seize him around 9:45 p.m., said Superintendent Nonito Asdai, Station 6 chief.
Ituralde resisted, ran toward his house, locked the door behind him and escaped using a trap door. He called his brother and reported the incident to the police.
Responding policemen arrested one of the gunmen identified as Kaisar Maing Atari, 29. They also recovered the getaway multi-cab van.
A witness said he noticed around 15 armed men at the scene prior to the incident. He said he also saw around six men who alighted from a multi-cab van and fled on two motorized boats toward Sitio Layag-Layag.