Cops abduct 3 Maranao traders in Laguna?

SAN PEDRO, Laguna — Investigators have linked the Laguna Intelligence and Investigation Group (LIIG) to the "abduction" of and what they believe was "extortion" from three Muslim cellphone traders in Biñan town.

Two of the LIIG’s civilian informers were caught yesterday morning in the act of receiving P210,000 from poseur police agents and relatives of Jimmy Dapat, Pangalian Sultan and Umbay Alim, all Maranaos, at the parking lot of a fastfood outlet at the Pacita Complex here.

The amount was reduced from P1 million which the "abductors" of Dapat, Sultan and Alim, who introduced themselves as Manila policemen, had earlier demanded.

Yesterday’s entrapment that resulted in the arrest of LIIG informers Bienvenido Salandanan, 36, and Arnulfo Montalbo, 36, was laid out by joint elements of the San Pedro police, the Regional Counter-Intelligence Group (RCIG) and the Regional Mobile Group.

Senior Inspector Andrew Aguirre, team leader of the RCIG, said Salandanan and Montalbo led them to an LIIG safehouse in Barangay Landayan here where the three Maranaos were reportedly being held.

But a raid on the safehouse yielded nothing. The three traders were supposedly transferred to the LIIG headquarters in Sta. Cruz town for the filing of appropriate charges against them.

Superintendent Rafael Aguilar, LIIG chief, however, denied that the three men were abducted, saying it was a "legitimate narcotics operation."

Aguilar said the three were charged for alleged possession and sale of 10 grams of shabu.

Chief Inspector Nilo Berdin, newly installed San Pedro police chief, said they have identified the six armed men who "abducted" Dapat, Sultan and Alim from their residence in Barangay San Antonio, Biñan town at about 5 a.m. last Monday.

Berdin, however, refused to identify the six men pending further investigation and their positive identification by witnesses.

The armed men allegedly presented no arrest warrants. They reportedly herded the family members of Dapat and Sultan as they took the two men, and also collared Alim along the way.