KFR gang member arrested

CAMP ALEJO SANTOS, Bulacan — A suspected member of the notorious Libarnes kidnap-for-ransom (KFR) gang tagged in the 1999 abduction-killing of two Chinese nationals in San Jose del Monte City, was arrested the other day.

Superintendent Eliseo Cruz, Bulacan head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said his men and San Jose del Monte police officers cornered Federico Pataray in his hideout in Barangay Sto. Cristo last Thursday afternoon.

Cruz said Pataray belongs to the Libarnes gang headed by Romulo Libarnes and whose other alleged members he identified as Juanito Pataray, Domingo Reyes, Joselito Flores, Alvin Arnaldo and a certain Akey.

Reyes, Flores and Arnaldo were earlier arrested by operatives of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) and are now facing charges in court.

Libarnes and his other henchmen remain at large. They face a standing warrant of arrest issued by Bulacan Regional Trial Court Judge Crisanto Concepcion.

The charges against the gang members stemmed from the kidnapping of Robert Yao, his father Yao San, mother Chuia Ong Ping Sim, siblings Raymond and Lenie, children Charlene and Ronald Matthew and their househelps Jona Abagatnan and Josephine Ortea on July 16, 1999.

A day later, all the victims were released, except for Chuia Ong Ping Sim and Raymond Yao. The kidnappers demanded a P5-million ransom for their freedom.

Negotiations bogged down, and the bodies of the two remaining victims were later fished out of the La Mesa Dam in Quezon City. – With Ric Sapnu