No clues yet on trader’s abduction

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Authorities are facing a blank wall on the abduction of the owner-manager of a lending firm who was snatched at a park here the other day.

The family of kidnap victim Rainier William Jones Clemente, 48, who runs the Prestige Lending Corp., said they have not yet received any ransom demand.

Clemente was seized and dragged to a waiting vehicle while jogging at the Pasonanca Park Wednesday morning.

Combined elements of the police and military stormed a number of suspected hideouts of the kidnappers Wednesday night but found nothing.

Chief Inspector Hado Edding, commander of the Sta. Maria police station, believes the kidnappers have not gone far and could still be hiding in this southern port city.

Clemente’s family earlier appealed to his abductors to release him due to his fragile health, having recently undergone a kidney operation.

Superintendent Servando Hizon, Region 9 police director, has directed police units in adjoining provinces to put up blocking forces to prevent the kidnappers from fleeing.

Meanwhile, Marines killed one of two men in an encounter at a checkpoint in Barangay Talon-Talon, one of the routes which Clemente’s captors might have used while fleeing. The other man escaped.

Lt. Col. Romy Tanalgo, commander of the 5th Marine Battalion Landing Team, said the two men fired at his men as they tried to slip through the roadblock aboard a passenger jeepney.