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TWO
members of the notorious Waray-Waray kidnap-for-ransom
group were arrested by police agents in recent
operations in Pasig and Pasay cities.
Director
General Oscar Calderon, National Police chief,
identified the two as Freeman Bagares, alias Priman, and
Ricardo Banaay, alias Tatang.
Calderon
said the two Waray-Waray members carried a reward of
P250,000 each for their arrest.
Bagares
was arrested in barangay Kalawaan, Pasig City, while
Banaay was arrested on Manlunas Street, Villamor Air
Base, Pasay City.
Both
suspects were arrested by virtue of warrants of arrest
for kidnapping for ransom issued by Judge Narbo Nobleja
of Branch 69 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in
Binangonan, Rizal, and by Judge Norberto Quisumbing of
Branch 21 of the RTC in Imus,
Cavite.
Police
said that the two were involved in at least 12
kidnapping incidents in Metro Manila, Rizal and
Cavite since 2001.
Calderon
said the arrests of Bagares and Banaay were the results
of aggressive and sustained police operations exerted by
the members of the Police Anticrime and Emergency
Response team.
“The
successful neutralization of these Waray-Waray
kidnap-for-ransom group members shows that the National
Police is winning the war against crime through its
unrelenting drive day and night,” he said.
So far
this year, the police have already arrested a total of
23 suspect kidnappers and killed
12 in
encounters.
The
neutralization of kidnap-for- ransom groups and the
employment of target-hardening measures have brought
down kidnapping incidents by 47 percent in the first six
months of this year, compared with the same period last
year.
However,
only four out of the 26 reported kidnap-for-ransom
incidents during the period were solved. Among these are
the rescue of Kim In Sook, a Korean national, in
Ternate, Cavite in February; the rescue of Eric Tan, in
Bagong Silang, Caloocan City, in March; Gina Brosas in
Nagcarlan, Laguna, in May; and Tariq Mian in Makati City
in June, all this year. |
