Ex-Army man tagged as leader of Mindoro dentist’s abductors

Police tagged a former Army soldier, who is facing two counts of rape, as the leader of armed men who kidnapped a businessman-dentist in Oriental Mindoro last Oct. 10.

Chief Superintendent Luisito Palmera, police director of Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan), ordered a massive manhunt for Junior Aquino after the kidnap victim, Dr. Gregorio Hora, 48, identified him as the leader of his abductors.

Aquino, also a native of Victoria town, disappeared after police rescued Hora Wednesday, some 16 hours after the suspects ransacked the dentist’s house in Poblacion 2 of jewelry worth P500,000 and other valuables.

“Aquino and his seven cohorts are now the subjects of a massive manhunt by our police units in the island-province,” Palmera said.

In his report to Palmera, Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr., Oriental Mindoro police director, said Aquino is also facing charges for the rape of two teenagers, the latest of which was filed two weeks ago.

Cruz said Aquino is known to Hora, he being one of the dentist’s suppliers of drugs and other items. Police filed kidnapping and robbery charges against Aquino and his cohorts before the Victoria municipal trial court yesterday.

Armed with caliber .45 automatic pistols, Aquino and his henchmen, some of them wearing ski masks, barged into Hora’s house, ransacked it and then fled with the dentist, leaving behind his companion. Cruz said the suspects first brought Hora to Barangay Mabatok in Victoria town where they called up the dentist’s wife to demand P3-million ransom.

The amount was lowered to P2 million after a series of negotiations. Aquino’s group handcuffed and blindfolded Hora and transferred him to another safehouse in Barangay Balete while waiting for a call from his wife on the payoff.

However, responding policemen located the suspects’ getaway vehicle, a Wrangler jeep, and while gathering evidence in a nearby area, found Hora wandering in front of an apartment that the suspects had rented.

Palmera said a National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) artist has drawn sketches of the suspects, including that of an elderly man who had rented the apartment from its caretaker, a certain Charing Villanueva, for P1,500 a month last Oct. 4.

Hora identified the elderly man as among those who barged into his house.

The elderly man, according to Palmera, is known in the area as living in with Aquino in Barangay Mabatok.

Palmera said Cruz’s men raided Aquino’s house Thursday but found it abandoned.

“They managed to escape before my men arrived,” said Palmera.