Police official tagged kidnap gang protector

DAVAO CITY — Some of the 16 arrested suspects in the recent abduction of a daughter of a vehicle manufacturer identified a police superintendent yesterday as a "protector" of a kidnap-for-ransom gang operating in Southern Mindanao.

The police official, a certain Willy Marohomsar Dangani, reportedly heads a task force assigned to go after the Pentagon syndicate in Region 12.

The 16 suspects were arrested during rescue operations for Ma. Cecilia Bonifacio, daughter of the owners of Bonifacio Motors Inc., and her two female companions in Hagonoy, Davao del Sur last Jan. 8, five days after they were seized at the Sta. Ana wharf here.

In his sworn affidavit, one of the suspects, Kalidin Saligan, alias Jerry Saligan, said he was recruited to be a Pentagon member by a certain Faisal Marohomsar, a former commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Saligan quoted Marohomsar as saying that they should not worry because Dangani, who reportedly heads the Sanlahi Anti-Kidnapping Task Force based in Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat, would give them protection. Marohomsar and Dangani are said to be cousins, sources said.

Another suspect, Grace Dulay, 22, claimed that Dangani also tipped them off whenever lawmen would go after them. — Edith Regalado