Cop major,  driver held for kidnap

A ranking officer of the Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police and his driver were arrested by elements of the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER) for alleged kidnapping.

Chief Inspector Exequiel Cuativer, commanding officer of the SAF training school in Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, and his driver are presently undergoing tactical interrogation at the PACER headquarters at Camp Crame.

Cuativer’s arrest has been a hot topic for days at the SAF headquarters at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

Sketchy reports showed that Cuativer, a member of the PNP Academy Class ’95, allegedly headed a group of highly trained active police and Army personnel behind last week’s kidnapping of a resident of a posh subdivision in Metro Manila.

Initially, the group allegedly demanded a P20-million ransom for the safe release of the victim.

There are reports that the cell phone of Cuativer’s child was allegedly used in the ransom negotiations.

PACER has kept mum on the arrest of Cuativer and his driver.

However, a police general told The STAR that Cuativer and his driver were arrested last Saturday by PACER agents at the vicinity of the SAF training school in Sta. Rosa.

Cuativer’s wife, also a police officer and a PNPA graduate, reported to the Sta. Rosa police that heavily armed men had kidnapped her husband.

Cuativer, according to the police general, is known among Army and police special forces because he was involved in their training.

PACER agents are presently conducting follow-up operations to get the other active police and Army personnel involved in the group’s alleged kidnapping activities.