Quezon NPAs tied to slain kidnappers

The "Oliver" kidnapping gang, eight of whose members were killed in a shootout with police at the border of Batangas and Quezon provinces last Wednesday, definitely has links with the communist New People’s Army (NPA), police reported yesterday.

Superintendent Guillermo Jose Eleazar, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Batangas, said the gang leader identified as Oliver Caneo Sorente was a former NPA leader based at Mt. Banahaw in Quezon province.

A certain "Ka Bart," one of five gang members who were earlier arrested for the January 2001 kidnapping of Batangas physician Arturo Boa, positively identified Sorente as one of the eight men who were killed in the Wednesday shootout.

Police said Sorente was on board one of the two cars that carried the eight men who were supposedly on their way to kidnap a wealthy grocer in Batangas. Lawmen pounced on them on the highway between San Antonio, Quezon and Rosario, Batangas.

Only Sorente survived the deadly encounter but he apparently died on the way to a hospital where the police had tried to rush him after the shootout.

Aside from Sorente, police have identified only three of the eight dead men. They are Reynaldo Lirio of Carmona, Cavite, Rexon Marasigan of Batangas City and Boy Levy Riovero of San Pablo City.

The Oliver gang was bold in their kidnapping operations because they were confident the police could not track them down in NPA-controlled areas in Quezon province, Ka Bart said.

According to Ka Bart, most of the members of the Oliver gang were former NPA rebels who are now working as bodyguards for local politicians in the Southern Tagalog region.

On Thursday, Philippine National Police (PNP) CIDG chief Director Nestorio Gualberto said police recovered from Lirio’s possession an identification card showing that he was also a bodyguard of Batangas City Vice Mayor Roel Chavez.

Police have also established that one of the two vehicles that the gang used was registered in the name of the vice mayor.

But Gualberto said yesterday police cannot yet file charges against Chavez for lack of evidence.

"Unless we have direct evidence linking the vice mayor to the kidnapping activities, we cannot file charges against him. (But) we are digging deeper into this," he said.

Gualberto also said his men are still verifying an intelligence report that Lirio also worked as a bodyguard for Cavite Gov. Ireneo Maliksi but a ranking Cavite police official, who asked not to be identified, said Lirio never worked for Maliksi.

The official said the Cavite police are conducting their own background investigation on Lirio.

Gualberto, for his part, said the success of the operation to interdict the kidnappers on Wednesday could be attributed to excellent intelligence operations that were conducted over several months.

The operation also involved elements of the PNP Intelligence Group under Chief Superintendent Jaime Caringal and Superintendents Marcelo Garbo and Manuel Barcena.

The operation was covered by a plan called "Operation Plan: Hurricane" that was duly approved by PNP chief Director General Leandro Mendoza, said Superintendent Rodrigo Agojo of the CIDG.

Agojo said the "Oplan" had been under development since Ka Bart and his four cohorts were arrested several months ago.

"We painstakingly developed the information which we gathered during the interrogation on the arrested suspects, leading to the other members of the gang," Agojo said.