5 killed in rescue operation in Pangasinan
04/20/2009 | 04:15 PM

MANILA, Philippines - Police on Sunday morning rescued a kidnap victim in northern Philippines that left five suspected members of a kidnap-for-ransom group dead, police said Monday.

One of those killed was Army Technical Sergeant Dionisio Obillo Jr., reportedly the leader of the Mostrales-Obillo-Waray-Waray kidnap group, said Senior Superintendent Leonardo Espina, chief of the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (Pacer).

The rescued victim was identified as 22-year-old businessman Julian Rodriguez of Ayala, Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

"He (Rodriguez) was safely rescued...he was not harmed," Espina said.

The rescue operation was carried out 6:40 a.m. Sunday in Urdaneta City. The kidnappers had demanded a P20-million ransom for the release of Rodriguez but the family refused to heed the demand.

Three other fatalities were identified as Rosendo Matias, reportedly a former Marine; Marcial Fontanilla and Roger Matias. The other cohorts escaped and are now being hunted by authorities.

Police recovered two caliber .45 pistols and two 9-mm handguns from the slain suspects.

Investigation showed that armed men seized Rodriguez after breaking into an Internet shop owned by the victim's family in Las Piñas City about 11 p.m. last April 15.

"The suspects initially planned to bring Julian’s sister Nins in their getaway car, but Julian offered himself to be taken hostage instead," Espina said.

The suspects fled using the vehicle owned by Rodriguez's sister.

The vehicle, a Honda Civic, was found abandoned two days later in Unzard village in Villasis town.

Espina said the operatives obtained intelligence information that Rodriguez was being kept at Purok 4 in Palinas West in Urdaneta City, which prompted them to launch a rescue operation last Sunday.

A former victim of the group, Francis Uyehara of Bulacan, helped authorities in identifying two of the slain suspects.

Uyehara admitted being taken to the same house when he was kidnapped Jan. 8 this year. The circumstances surrounding Uyehara's case, however, were not divulged. - GMANews.TV

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/157798/(Update...n-in-Pangasinan

Good work guys! :ssalute:

PACER nabs kidnap gang leader in Masbate
Philstar.com
Philstar.com - Monday, April 27

MANILA, Philippines - Police anti-kidnapping agents arrested one of the leaders of a notorious kidnapping syndicate preying on wealthy businessmen and their families in Metro Manila, Davao and Cebu, in Masbate the other day.

Cornered in an open field while trying to escape in Barangay Fabrica, Mobo town was Edgardo Ferolino Renata, alias King and Nonoy, one of the leaders of the Pepino kidnapping gang, said Senior Superintendent Dindo Espina, head of the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER).

Espina said Renata’s group has direct links with the equally notorious Waray-Waray-Ilonggo kidnapping gang.

“We finally cornered him after several months of tracking him down,” Espina said, adding that Renata carried a P170,000 price on his head.

PACER records show that Renata had numerous warrants of arrest for a string of kidnappings issued by Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 220.

Renata, according to Espina, was tagged as the mastermind of at least 12 kidnappings from 2003 to 2007.

He was also implicated in the abduction and illegal detention of Arnold and Jasmine Perez in Tagum, Davao del Norte in 2006, and a murder case in Masbate.

“His arrest partly solved the kidnappings that he and his group had committed,” Espina said.

Espina said Renata’s arrest brings to 15 the number of Pepino kidnapping gang members already neutralized by the police. - By Jaime Laude (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/star/20090427/tph...at-5994a93.html

Good work Guys! :ssalute:

Cops rescue businessman, kill 7 kidnap suspects in Laguna
07/11/2009 | 10:29 AM

(Updated 5:15 p.m.) MANILA, Philippines — Seven suspected kidnappers were killed Friday while their victim was rescued in what an official trumpeted as a "record-setting 12-hour police operation" in Laguna and Cavite.

Senior Superintendent Isagani R. Nerez, chief of Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (Pacer), said Jefferson Cheng and his driver, Florante Cariňosa, were on board a van to deliver tobacco products to customers when they were stopped by gunmen along Malipay Road in Bacoor town at around 9:25 a.m. Friday.

"Their van was blocked by unidentified armed men on board a blue van without plate number," Nerez said in a report to Director General Jesus Versoza, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and in a press statement on Saturday.

The driver was forced out of the van along Las Piňas in Metro Manila and the gunmen took Cheng to an undisclosed location.

Nerez said that four hours after the abduction, the victim's son Johnny Cheng received a phone call from someone asking for a P20 million ransom for his father's safe release.

The younger Cheng contacted the Bacoor police and the Pacer, which then responded jointly with elements of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), the Cavite Provincial Police and Manila Police Department, he said.

With the help of concerned citizens and other law enforcement agencies in the region, Nerez said, the operatives tracked down the kidnappers at 7:15 p.m. and rescued Cheng in a safehouse along Executive Mabuhay City in Cabuyao town of Laguna after a 15-minute firefight that resulted in the deaths of three suspects.

Southern Luzon regional police director Chief Superintendent Perfecto Palad, in a radio interview with dzRH on Saturday, said rescuers found the victim handcuffed and isolated in a room.

Two .45-caliber pistols and one .38-caliber revolver were recovered from the suspects, he said.

Nerez said four other suspected members of the gang were killed in a subsequent shootout at a checkpoint in Daang Hari, Bacoor early Saturday.

He said police manning the checkpoint noticed that a red Honda sedan, which was earlier reported to be the getaway car of the fleeing suspects in Laguna, opted to evade the checkpoint and counterflowed. When the law enforcers gave chase, the gunmen put up a fight, prompting a shootout.

"After a 20-minute gunbattle, two of them (suspects) lay dead. Two others, who were taken to the nearest hospital without haste. It was learned later in the morning that the last two members did not make it despite the emergency measures done by the hospital staff," said Nerez.

Police admitted that as of Saturday morning, they still could not identify the suspects, except for one who died on the spot in Bacoor, Cavite. The suspect had an identification card with the name Demetrio Mendoza.

"Hindi matukoy kung anong grupo ito. Noong halungkatin ng SOCO ang bangkay walang pagkakilanlan, walang dalang ID or cedula (We could not immediately determine what group this was. When Scene of the Crime Operations people checked, they found no ID on them)," Palad said.

Although nothing new, kidnap-for-ransom cases in Metro Manila and nearby provinces have abated in the past years largely due to the cooperation of victims, say police.

On the other hand, kidnapping cases persist in the southern Philippines, with at least 56 people kidnapped in 26 incidents there in 2008.

Of the total, 36 were either through negotiations or rescued, nine were killed, and 11 remain captives. Police said P45.92 million in ransom has been paid to the captors, who have been identified as members of the Abu Sayyaf and rogue elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). - GMANews.TV

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/167136/Cops-re...pects-in-Laguna

Good work Guys! :ssalute: