Kidnappers free Cotabato trader’s son

PIKIT, North Cotabato — A seven-year-old son of a Chinese-Filipino hardware store owner was freed by his kidnappers Wednesday night after local officials had threatened to set ablaze the houses of the captors’ relatives here.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol said the victim, Jaime Yap Jr., who was abducted last Monday afternoon, was brought to his house by two emissaries of the kidnappers.

The boy’s abductors were mostly disgruntled secessionist rebels who have just joined the Pentagon, now a big kidnap-for-ransom gang operating in Central Mindanao.

Piñol said Pikit Mayor Farida Malingco was among those who helped convince the kidnappers to release Yap without any ransom.

The boy was snatched by two pistol-wielding men from his classroom at the Pikit Central Elementary School.

Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said combatants of the 40th Infantry Battalion cordoned off the kidnappers’ lair at the Liguasan marsh while the boy’s release was being negotiated.

"The pressure was overwhelming. The safety of the kidnappers’ relatives in Pikit was at stake because local leaders were bent on really retaliating and soldiers were already advancing toward their hideout so they released the boy without any ransom," Ando said.

Malingco, chairman of the municipal peace and order council, said she relied on the help of local Muslim religious leaders in seeking the boy’s freedom.

"I’m very glad that we succeeded in working out his release," Malingco told The STAR.

Yap’s mother, Mary, said she was so worried about her son’s health while in captivity.

"He is a very sickly child and so choosy with food," she said. — With Roel Pareño