Cops revive probe on 2009 kidnap of Surigao banker

BUTUAN CITY, Philippines – The new police director of the Caraga region yesterday revived the investigation into the 2009 kidnapping of a Surigao City banker whose fate has remained unknown.

Chief Superintendent Reynaldo Rafal said he would call for a case conference on the kidnapping of 50-year-old banker Johnson Cuiting this week.

Rafal said he received information that records of the case are with the Presidential Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER), which took over the investigation into the kidnapping.

During his stint as Surigao del Norte police director, Senior Superintendent Gilbert de la Cruz, along with his men, found the skeletal remains of a man in a cave outside Surigao City but forensic experts later said these did not matched with Cuiting’s DNA samples.

Cruz earlier said patience, hard work and consistency were needed to investigate the Cuiting kidnapping.

Cruz then expressed suspicion that Cuiting was already dead and belied reports that he was seen alive and well in Hong Kong after his family supposedly paid ransom in exchange for his freedom.

Cuiting, owner and founder of the Rural Bank of Placer Inc., was seized by armed men on the night of Jan. 7, 2009 from his home at Ceniza Heights Subdivision in Surigao City.

His kidnappers were reported to be Tagalog-speaking but with a Visayan-Muslim accent and wearing black jackets, ski masks and gloves.

Cuiting’s mother died last year without seeing her son.