Dureza offers government aid to Sino exec’s abductors

COTABATO CITY — Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza offered government support, instead of ransom, yesterday to the captors of a Chinese manager of a construction firm involved in an irrigation project in North Cotabato, so they could start life anew.

This developed as police filed robbery charges yesterday against four persons in connection with the abduction of Zhang Zhung Quiang, including the owner of the Mitsubishi L-300 van which the victim hired to bring him from Davao City to the project site in Carmen, North Cotabato, when he was abducted.

Facing charges in the Davao City Regional Trial Court were Percival Ceriales, the van’s owner; Vicente Guingona, the driver, and a certain Charlie and Eliezer Paluga.

Earlier, North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol said Ceriales has confessed to his involvement in Zhang’s abduction.

Piñol added that three security guards at the irrigation project site have been arrested, and are helping probers track down the Chinese engineer’s captors.

The robbery charges involved the disappearance of spare parts worth about P70,000 which Zhang purchased from a hardware store in Davao City on the day he was abducted.

Police found the spare parts buried at the back of the house the Palugas were renting in Barangay Sto. Niño, Carmen, Davao del Norte. Guingona reportedly brought the stolen items there upon Ceriales’ instructions.

Dureza’s offer, aired through Catholic radio station dxMS here, came a day after notorious kidnapper Faizal Marohomsar told the same broadcast outfit that Zhang is now in the custody of his followers.

Marohomsar, a Maranaw, said the abduction of 43-year-old Zhang, who hardly speaks English, was deliberately planned to dramatize their sentiments over the alleged failure of past administrations to extend livelihood support promised them in exchange for their surrender.

Marohomsar, a henchman of slain kidnap gang leader Commander Mubarak, said he twice surrendered to the government in the late 1990s, but was not given any government assistance which he and his followers needed to live peaceful lives in their towns in Central Mindanao.

"I assure you, under the administration of President Arroyo, you don’t have to perpetrate kidnappings just to get the attention of Malacañang. Through my office, you can reach the President to discuss with her your plans of starting life all over again," Dureza said.

He said he is ready to accompany Marohomsar to Justice Secretary Hernando Perez and President Arroyo to discuss how the government can possibly help in assimilating his group back into the mainstream of society.

Zhang is the operations manager of the China Import-Export Technologies Inc. (CITECH), which is constructing major components of the Malitubog-Maridagao irrigation project in Carmen, designed to irrigate 11,000 hectares of ricefields in North Cotabato.