Kidnap gang leader nabbed in Batangas

Police arrested yesterday in Tanauan City in Batangas the suspected mastermind in a string of kidnap-for-ransom cases in Metro Manila and nearby provinces, including the separate snatching of Robert Cheng, owner of Uratex Plastic Products, his daughter Mary Grace Cheng-Ragasas, and sister Connie Wong.

Cesar Olympiada, 30, of Barangay Malaking Pulo, Tanauan was cornered during a raid on his hideout by combined elements of the 402nd Batangas Police Mobile Group and the Batangas provincial police.

Olympiada was tagged as the "planner" for the Fajardo-Villaver kidnap group that operates in the Southern Tagalog and Metro Manila.

Olympiada’s group was also believed to be behind the abduction in September last year of businessman Jesus Cabalza, 66, his bodyguard Gilberto Hermano, 35, driver Antonio Bebita, 50, and secretary Regina Casipi. Casipi was later released to relay the kidnappers’ demand for P30-million ransom.

The raiders, who were armed with an arrest warrant issued by Regional Trial Court Judge Eduardo Israel Tanguanco of Bacoor, Cavite confiscated a caliber .45 automatics, bullets and four magazines from Olympiada.

Ragasas was seized on June 18 last year at the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City, along with her driver Dionisio Burca Sr. and bodyguard Valentin Torres.

The three were released upon alleged payment of P20 million in ransom.

On the other hand, Wong and her two escorts, Dionisio Burca Jr. and Angel Barguilla, were kidnapped on Oct. 3, 2001 at the boundary of Valenzuela City and Meycauayan in Bulacan.

The kidnappers later murdered Wong and Burca, while Barquilla was left for dead along Galas street in Barangay Bignay, Valenzuela.

Police theorized that both Wong and Ragasas were kidnapped by the same group, the Valencia gang, a faction of the Fajardo-Villaver crime ring.

Police also said most of the Valencia gang members have been neutralized in an intensified anti-kidnapping campaign in Metro Manila, Bulacan and Southern Tagalog.

Police records also showed that the Valencia gang was behind seven other high-profile kidnapping incidents in Metro Manila since 1996.

The Philippine National Police’s criminal investigation and detection group, acting on information given by two arrested suspects, recovered last April 26 the skeletal remains of Cabalza, his bodyguard and driver from a deep well beside a sugar plantation in Barangay Hidalgo in Tanauan.

Roland Villaver, alleged founder of the Villaver gang, was arrested in Pasay City last year, but two of his cohorts, identified only as Jerry and Jun, remained at large.

Villaver, who used to work as Cabalza’s driver, has been in detention since at Camp Crame.

At the height of the negotiations for Cabalza’s release, Villaver was quoted by other gang members as asking the victim; "Natatandaan mo ba ako? (Do you still know me?)"

Cabalza responded; "Roland, ikaw ba ’yan? Tulungan mo ako (Roland, is that you? Please help me)."

Villaver then allegedly pulled out his gun and shot Cabalza on the head and various parts of the body. The driver was also murdered. – Arnell Ozaeta, Jaime Laude, Christina Mendez