Houseboy seized in Cotabato

COTABATO CITY ,Philippines  – Moro bandits kidnapped a houseboy they mistook as a son of the mayor of Aleosan town in the boundary of Aleosan and Midsayap towns in North Cotabato Tuesday night.

Aleosan Mayor Loreto Cabaya said his distant relative, Ronnie Cabaya, who works as a part time houseboy in his house was on his way home from school on board a passenger motorcycle locally known as “habal-habal” when the gunmen flagged him down, forced him into a pick-up truck and brought him to Dungguan area also in Aleosan.

Cabaya said witnesses heard one of the kidnappers as saying he was certain the victim was his son, Jason, before they took Cabaya.

“The victim is my distant relative, not my son. He works at my house voluntarily to reciprocate by helping him study accountancy. Like me, he comes from a poor family,” he said.

Two Army battalions and local policemen were deployed to pursue the kidnappers.              – With Jaime Laude