Tsinoy trader's son kidnapped

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Gunmen seized a four-year-old boy on his way home from school in Cotabato City, authorities said yesterday, blaming a notorious kidnapping gang allegedly in cahoots with local officials.

Police and soldiers arrested one suspect – a former radio disc jockey – hours after the four gunmen in a car snatched the son of a Chinese-Filipino trader, Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane said.

The three other suspects, believed to be holding the boy in a village near Cotabato, are said to be employees of the transportation department of the autonomous region, Dangane said.

The boy was suffering from fever and asthma, he said.

Cotabato Mayor Muslimin Sema suspected that the kidnapping, the fourth in the region since May, was the work of a group of former Muslim rebels and local gunmen belonging to the Pentagon gang.

The group has been blamed for several abductions in recent years in central Mindanao where Muslim separatist rebels maintain strongholds.

Sema said the series of ransom kidnappings could be linked to next year’s national elections as candidates may be looking for ways to fund their campaigns. Kidnappings and bank robberies usually rise ahead of elections.

Wealthy traders of Chinese descent and their families are often targets of kidnappings.

The 70-year-old sister of a Chinese-Filipino hotel owner in the city was released from seven days of captivity earlier this month after her family paid ransom. Her brother and his 10-year-old daughter were also held in February for four days.

Last month, government troops and Muslim rebels worked together in a brief, rare alliance to force the kidnappers to abandon a Chinese tourist held for five days.

The Abu Sayyaf, a smaller but more violent al-Qaeda-linked group, has also carried out kidnappings and has been holding Italian Red Cross worker Eugenio Vagni since January. – AP, John Unson