15 kidnap suspects nabbed

Anti-kidnapping operatives rescued a Chinese-Filipino woman in Antipolo City, Rizal and subsequently arrested 15 of her abductors, one of them a policeman, during follow-up operations in Quezon City yesterday.

National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (NAKTF) chief Angelo Reyes said lawmen rescued Genevie Ong Sy in a two-story building on 11th Street, Road 1, Barangay San Luis in Antipolo City.

Six of the suspects who were guarding Sy in the building were apprehended by combined personel of NAKTF and the Rizal police during the rescue operations.

Reyes identified the arrested suspects as Senior Police Officer 4 Romeo Ayson, 52; Romeo Arota, 33; Edwin Castillo, 23; Jose Albato, 43, Jaime Tolevas, 43, and Sebastian Magaipo, 30.

Reyes tagged Ayson, assigned at the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), as the leader of the group.

In subsequent operations, NAKTF and CIDG personnel were able to track down the other suspects at their hideout on Real street in North Fairview, Quezon City.

The arrested suspects were identified as Jullien Madrid, 29; May Ann Angtahan, 23; Janeth Patilona, 19; Alberto Culanag, 38; Pepe Bihag, 25; Clifford Langcao, 22; Erick Pat-o, 25; George Lanchow and Kim Asli.

Reyes said they were able to trace the calls made by the suspects on a cellular phone which led them to Sy’s rescue.

Sy, 27, was snatched Thursday while on her way to work in Sta. Cruz, Manila. The victim was driving her Mitsubishi Lancer car when she was flagged down by two of the suspects in police uniforms who then forced her to drive all the way to Antipolo City at gunpoint.

Reyes said the suspects also used the victim’s cell phone to negotiate their ransom demands.

The suspects reportedly agreed to lower the ransom from P50 million to P500,000. The ransom money was later recovered intact along with several firearms and ammunition seized from Ayson and the other suspects during the Antipolo City rescue operation.

Sy later told her rescuers that she was constantly threatened by her abductors during her three-day captivity.

She pointed to Ayson and the other suspects threatening to kill her in the same fate as Coca-Cola Export Corp. finance manager Betti Chua Sy last November.

Unknown to Ayson, the cell phone he was using to negotiate the ransom demand was traced by NAKTF agents and the CIDG who were able to pinpoint their exact location every time he made a call.

After he was arrested, Ayson broke down during interrogation and agreed to lead lawmen in arresting other suspects.

Reyes said Ayson and the suspects are members of the notorious "Waray-Waray" kidnap-for-ransom syndicate.

The successful rescue operation came a day after NAKTF agents recaptured Feliciano Laygo, the country’s sixth most wanted kidnap suspect, in Tiaong, Quezon.

Laygo, who carried a P500,000 bounty for his capture, was arrested after an informant tipped off lawmen that he was seeking refuge at the house of a relative in Barangay Lagalag in Tiaong.

A rogues’ gallery distributed nationwide by NAKTF identified Laygo as the sixth most wanted kidnap-for-ransom suspect in the country. He was the Laygo was 13th of NAKTF’s 24 most wanted kidnappers to fall in recent days. Most of those in the wanted list are "Waray-Waray" gang members, police said.

Only 11 remain at large, among them brothers Harold and Rolando Fajardo who both carry P1 million bounty for their arrest.

Another suspect who carries a million-peso reward for his capture is former policemen Allan Estrada, tagged as the third most wanted.

The Fajardo brothers were allegedly involved in the abduction of Japanese Noboyuki Wakaoji, a Mitsui and Co. executive, from a golf course in Canlubang town, Laguna, in 1986.

Earlier this week, the 13th most wanted kidnapper, Ambrudin Macasilang, was arrested by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Marawi City.

Last Feb. 15, NAKTF agents captured the country’s eighth most wanted kidnapper during a raid on his hideout in Quezon City.

Teddy Padre, who carries a P500,000 bounty on his head, was arrested in a house along Commonwealth Avenue on the strength of a warrant issued by the Pasay City regional trial court.

On Jan. 3, police arrested Franco Artoza in Jaro, Leyte. He was the seventh suspect in last November’s kidnapping and murder of Coca-Cola executive Betti Chua Sy.

The arrest of Artoza came after police picked up another gangman, Fernando Niegos, on New Year’s Day in another house in the same area.

Padre was the ninth kidnap gang leader to be arrested by NAKTF in December.

Roberto Yap, a medical doctor who headed a gang that preyed mostly on rich Chinese-Filipino families, was killed in late November.

NAKTF agents have also captured Allan Niegas, the fourth most wanted kidnapper, Dec. 4 last year; Vilmore Catamco, No. 5, Dec. 3; Joselim Amuco, No. 7, Dec. 15; Reynaldo Cachi, No. 8, Jan. 24; Joer Abonales, No. 15, Jan. 27; Ronnie Tan, No. 12, Feb. 8, and Arnel Suellen, No. 17, who was arrested last Feb. 12. - With Katherine Adraneda