Chief Inspector Rufino Inot, Libungan police chief, identified the victim as Martina Martin, 33, whose father owns a rice mill in the town proper of Libungan, a booming town 45 kilometers north of this city.
Inot said five pistol-wielding men barged into the Martins’ rice mill at about 4 p.m. Sunday, dragged the victim to a waiting car and fled toward nearby Midsayap town.
The kidnappers managed to slip through at least two outposts of civilian volunteers along the highway connecting Libungan and Midsayap, a densely populated town also in North Cotabato.
Inot said responding lawmen shot it out with the kidnappers who still succeeded in escaping toward Barangay Labas in Midsayap where a fast rivercraft was waiting for them.
From Barangay Labas, the kidnappers spirited Martin away to a marshy area at the boundary of Midsayap and Maguindanao’s Kabuntalan town, a known lair of kidnappers and extortionists.
Maj. Gen. Roy Kyamko, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said he has ordered all their units in Ma—guindanao to tightly guard all possibly routes of the kidnappers.
Army intelligence sources said Martin’s abduction was pulled off by notorious kidnapper Mayangkang Saguile, who carries a P1-million prize on his head.