Cotabato jail escapee tagged in trader's kidnap recaptured

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – After weeklong surveillance, police recaptured in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao yesterday a member of a kidnapping gang who escaped from the North Cotabato provincial jail in 2007 and was tagged in the kidnapping here of a Chinese-Filipino trader last Aug. 16.

The suspect, Faisal Mamalangkas Salik, was among the 48 inmates who escaped from the North Cotabato provincial jail in Kidapawan City when about a hundred Moro rebels rescued two detained foreign-trained bombers, Borham Mundos and Alih Sultan, in February 2007.

Salik, 30, was cornered by policemen, led by Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane of the Cotabato City police, at the Simuay Bridge in nearby Sultan Kudarat town, not far from Camp Darapanan, the main headquarters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

“He was riding a motorcycle along with two companions who were also arrested and are now undergoing interrogation,” Dangane said.

Dangane said investigators are convinced that Salik’s companions, Julkarnain Salik and Anwar Islah, could also be involved in the Aug. 16 kidnapping of trader Nelson Tay, who was freed three days later after his family paid ransom.

Dangane said Salik was detained on drug trafficking and other heinous offenses at the North Cotabato provincial jail in 2005 until his escape in 2007.

Dangane said Salik is a known henchman of Mayangkang Saguile, leader of a Maguindanao gang implicated in the kidnapping of more than 30 Chinese-Filipino traders here and in surrounding towns from 1993 to 2004.

Dangane said they have received information that Salik was among those who plotted Tay’s abduction almost three weeks ago.

Armed men, clad in Army uniforms, snatched Tay from his store along a busy street here and dragged him into a waiting Hyundai van, which was abandoned hours after the incident in a secluded barangay in Sultan Kudarat. – With Mike Frialde and Cecille Suerte Felipe