Kidnappers release retired Army sergeant's son in North Cotabato

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Kidnappers released early Wednesday a son of a retired Army sergeant snatched by five gunmen last August 10 in Barangay Tumbras in Midsayap town.

Senior Superintendent Danilo Peralta, director of the North Cotabato provincial police, said 19-year-old Mark Anthony Baya was released by his captors to negotiators somewhere in Cotabato City at about 2:20 a.m.

Peralta, however, declined to comment when asked if the victim’s family had paid ransom to the kidnappers.

Baya, a college student, was about to close their small roadside store in Barangay Tumbras at past 7:00 p.m. on August 10 when the kidnappers arrived, forced him into a getaway car and spirited him to the swampy boarder of Midsayap and Datu Piang towns in the second district of Maguindanao.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, presiding chairperson of the inter-agency provincial peace and order council, said Baya was released through the joint intercession of local Moro traditional leaders and two incumbent members of the provincial board, Dulia Sultan and Kelly Antao.

The backchannel efforts of securing Baya’s release were also coordinated cohesively with the joint ceasefire committee of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, according to Mendoza.