2 KIDNAPPERS KILLED: Cops free agricultural scientist from captors

COTABATO CITY — Lawmen freed a kidnapped agricultural scientist and killed two of his kidnappers, said to be "lost command" Moro guerrillas, in a shootout in North Cotabato yesterday morning.

Police said the victim, Dr. Pablito Pamplona, director of the Agricultural Research Center of the state-run University of Southern Mindanao in Kabacan, North Cotabato, was rescued from his captors immediately after he was snatched in the town proper of Kabacan, a critical town 97 kilometers northeast of this city.

The abductors had told Pamplona’s 10-year-old son, who witnessed the kidnapping, to deliver the ransom demand of P2 million. But the son immediately reported the incident to the police.

The kidnappers, who spirited away Pamplona using a getaway vehicle, opened fire on soldiers who blocked their escape route, triggering a brief, running gunbattle.

Two of Pamplona’s abductors were killed in the ensuing firefight.

Another suspect, a certain Rex Abedin, was arrested as he tried to run away from the scene after sensing that responding soldiers and policemen, led Kabacan Mayor Wilfredo Bataga, had outmaneuvered them.

Pamplona hid behind a bush during the firefight and escaped unharmed, according to Superintendent Manuel Raval, regional police director.

Abedin, during initial interrogation, admitted having taken part in the abduction of Pamplona, identifying a certain Commander Saguile, a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, as the mastermind.

Saguile, who has been operating in Pagalungan and Pikit towns, has long been wanted for a string of serious offenses, including the killing in the early 1990s of the son of then Maguindanao Gov. Norodin Matalam.

"It was just fortunate that they did not succeed because our people are already vigilant now. They do not want a repeat of recent atrocities perpetrated here by lawless groups," Bataga said.