Kidnapped Lanao poll exec rescued

COTABATO CITY – Police rescued the other day the kidnapped election officer of Calanugas, Lanao del Sur after being held captive for almost two weeks by a group led by a former vice mayor.

Superintendent Danilo Bacas, spokesman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police, said Calanugas municipal election officer Kasan Laguindab was found abandoned in a remote village in the same town by his captors who apparently sensed that policemen had started surrounding their safehouse.

Bacas, citing feedback by the Lanao del Sur provincial police, said no ransom was paid to the kidnappers, led by Pexan Benito, former vice mayor of Calanugas.

Benito and his men snatched Laguindab and a relative while on their way home from a hearing of a criminal case between the poll officer and the former vice mayor at the Regional Trial Court in Malabang town.

Bacas said Benito will be charged with kidnapping and illegal detention.