Suspects in German couple’s kidnap held

CAMP DANGWA, Benguet — Cordillera police arrested on Thursday five of the 10 armed robbers who held for four days Secretary to the German Ambassador to the Philippines, Claudia Melo and her husband, Jose, and their driver last April 21 in Ifugao.

Chief Superintendent George Aliño, Cordillera police director identified the five as: Clary B. Agcon, 29, married, an ex-army and a resident of Molintas St., Purok 5, Bulanao, Tabuk, Kalinga; Redentor I. Butic, 21, single, a native and resident of Brgy. Cudog, Lagawe, Ifugao; Vicente B. Baguiwan, 29, married, a native of Pasil, Kalinga; and a resident of Gulayon, Tabuk, Kalinga and Jim A. Dayahon, 30, married, a native of Rizal, Tabuk and presently residing at Casigayan, Tabuk, Kalinga.

The police director said the criminal group known as Kalinga and Ifugao gangs are merely armed robbers victimizing travelers along the Banaue-Bontoc-Sagada and Bontoc-Kalinga highways allaying fears that a kidnap-for-ranson group is operating in the Cordillera provinces. "It was an armed robbery," Aliño said.

International consultancy firm Pacific Strategies Assessment earlier strongly recommended foreign visitors to avoid going to Banaue, in Ifugao and Sagada, in Mt. Province in the wake of the reported kidnapping of the Melo couple.

PSA, a Hong Kong and Manila-based consultancy firm in a report obtained from intelligence sources said the Melo couple was eventually released in Baguio City on April 27 after paying a total of P80,000 (approximately $1,569) to their abductors. The couple’s wedding rings and other valuables were taken as well.

Aliño, however, said that the suspects purpose was really to divest the couple with money. The couple were first divested of P30,000. By chance the robbers came to know that their victims had an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) account in the bank. So they held them for four days so that they could force the couple to withdraw daily. Mrs. Melo was made to withdraw P20,000 daily.

The couple was released on the fourth day, police said.

Additionally, police are in hot pursuit of other gang members identified as Robert Dag-o, a resident of Kiangan, Ifugao and the alleged leader of the gang; Amor Gubiangan, a resident Gobgob, Tabuk, Kalinga and allegedly the co-leader of the group; Roy Alcanzarin, a resident of Nabukayan, Tabuk, Kalinga; a certain Leonard, a resident of Kiangan, Ifugao and a certain Tommy, a member of the Tulgao tribe in Kalinga and resident of Pinukpuk town, also in Kalinga.

Charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention were filed against the arrested suspects while Aliño said that he has recommended for a reward of P500,000 for the arrest of each of the gang members.

The police director added that the Cagayan provincial police office has also filed a homicide case against the members of the gang after they killed the original driver of the Kia Besta van, Leopoldo Paredes. Aliño said the group hired on April 13 the van they used in the robbery of Rommel de Guzman in Cagayan.