Another suspect in Burmese boy’s kidnap arrested

MANILA, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has arrested another suspect in the kidnapping of an eight-year-old Burmese boy last year.

Agents of the NBI Counter Terrorism Division nabbed Jerry Bandojo, alias “Boyax,” on Feb. 28 in Taytay, Rizal following a surveillance operation.

The suspect’s apprehension was made by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued by Biñan, Laguna regional trial court Judge Teodoro Solis in November 2012.

Bandojo was detained at the NBI jail and will be presented before the court next week.

He was the second of five suspects arrested by the NBI in connection with the Burmese boy’s kidnapping. The first one was Police Officer 2 Rosendo Jaspe, who was caught by NBI agents at the Manila Domestic Airport last Jan. 3.

The NBI vowed to pursue the hunt for the three other suspects, whose names were withheld so as not to jeopardize ongoing operations.

Records show that the victim was on a school bus with 13 other children when five men in a red car and armed with automatic rifles blocked the vehicle’s path and snatched the victim.

The kidnappers later allegedly demanded P20-million ransom from the boy’s parents, who were initially reported to be owners of a food processing factory in Laguna.

But sources in the Biñan police and the local government said the boy was more likely a victim of mistaken identity since his parents were just factory workers. They said the boy could have been mistaken for the son of the factory’s Chinese owners.

The kidnappers abandoned the boy on June 26, 2012 and was rescued in a shanty at Pinesville Subdivision in Taytay, Rizal.