March 2, 2000, The Philippine Star, MILF Hand Suspected: Cotabato trader, driver abducted, by John Unson,

March 2, 2000, The Philippine Star, MILF Hand Suspected: Cotabato trader, driver abducted, by John Unson,

COTABATO CITY - Heavily armed men, whom the military suspects to be Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels, snatched the other day a wealthy trader and his driver along a busy stretch of the national highway in Matalam, North Cotabato.

The MILF, however, denied having a hand in the abduction of businessman Genaro Torquieza, 60, and his driver, Avelino Alagario, 35, saying probers should look deeper into the incident and identify the real culprits.

Police said Torquieza and Alagario were on their way aboard a pick-up truck to a sand and gravel quarry owned by Torquieza when the armed men blocked their path, ordered them to disembark and whisked them off in a getaway vehicle parked nearby.

Senior Superintendent Alex Paul Monteagudo, North Cotabato police director, said policemen were still scouring the area where the kidnappers and their victims were last seen.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol said he is ready to shell out money in exchange for any information that will lead to the arrest of the kidnappers.

Sources from the Army's 6th Infantry Division here said the abduction could have been perpetrated by MILF rebels to divert anew the attention of authorities now investigating the rebel group's alleged involvement in last Sunday's bombing of Catholic station dxMS here which left seven people seriously wounded.

"The relatives of the victims have not received any ransom demand yet from the kidnappers. We are now doing our best to identify the people behind the kidnapping and we shall file corresponding charges against them once they are identified," said Marine Col. Nilo Castromayor, operations chief of the Marine-led Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) here.

Piñol said he has alerted all local officials in the province to help the PAOCTF, 6th ID and police track down the kidnappers.

"This is another trial for us. We need to address this problem cohesively. We should not take this sitting down," Piñol said. - With Alvin Tarroza