Sunday, September 21, 2014

Kidnap gang leader falls in Cotabato

From the Philippine News Agency (Sep 21): Kidnap gang leader falls in Cotabato

Three days after a failed attempt to rob a pawnshop in Koronadal City, a man long wanted for a series of kidnapping cases in Central Mindanao was arrested by a joint Cotabato and Koronadal City police and army team here before dawn Sunday.

Senior supt. Rolen Balquin, Cotabato City Police director, said Khadafy Guiamelon, a kidnap gang leader implicated in some 30 abductions in Central Mindanao and in Thursday’s bloody daytime pawnshop heist in Koronadal City, was arrested at 1 a.m. along Pansacala St. in a residential district in west Cotabato City.

Police records showed Guiamelon, also known as Commander Pilandok, ranks third in the list of the Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) of most wanted kidnappers in Southern Philippines.

Confidential informants confirmed Guiamelon has also been occasionally residing in a slum area behind the MC Square, a small trading complex along Sinsuat Ave. here.

Balquin said the suspect is now undergoing questioning on his reported involvement in the Sept. 18 deadly attempt to rob the Agencia Brillantes, a pawnshop along OsmeƱa St. in Koronadal City.

Two security guards were killed while two responding watchmen from nearby establishments were shot and wounded as they tried to prevent the robbers’ escape. Two minors were wounded in the crossfire.

Authorities said Guiamelon and his followers are remnants of Central Mindanao’s once feared kidnapping syndicate led by Abogado Gado, also known as Commander Mubarak.

Mubarak was killed in the summer of 1993 by pursing policemen and Marines in Pantukan, Compostela Valley, while Ali Mayangkang, who is from Kabuntalan town in Maguindanao, was shot dead by motorcycle-riding gunmen near the Cotabato City supermarket area in 1999.

Balquin said local policemen and police agents from Koronadal City, operatives of the AKG and the Philippine Anti-Organized Crime Commission, and combatants of the Army’s 5th Special Forces Battalion together arrested Guiamelon based on two separate warrants for his arrest.

One of the warrants was issued by Judge George Jabido while the other came from the sala of Judge Bansawan Ebrahim of the Regional Trial Court Branches 15 and 14, both in Cotabato City, respectively.

Balquin said Guiamelon’s arrest was a result of extensive cooperation among civilian tipsters, the police and the intelligence units here of the Army’s elite Special Forces.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=686603

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