Trader’s son kidnapped

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

CITY police director Faro Antonio Olaguera has created a team to look into the kidnapping of a seven-year old son of a Chinese Filipino businessman in Bugo, this city, the Gold Star Daily learned yesterday.

Senior Supt. Olaguera said the special investigation task group was coordinating with the Anti-Kidnapping Group in digging deeper into the Feb. 12 kidnapping. He said the AKG was handling the case but the city police’s special task group has started a parallel investigation.

Authorities have requested that the names of the victim and his family, and the suspect be withheld for police reasons.

The boy, first declared “missing,” was allegedly taken by a relative from a private school in Bugo.

Olaguera said police were able to identify a suspect after reviewing the school’s security camera recordings.

The suspect, according to Olaguera, has demanded a still unclear amount of ransom from the boy’s parents which has become a talking point in negotiations.

The victim’s family is from Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, who reportedly owns a business establishment in Puerto, this city.

“We agreed that in the interim it should be labeled a ‘missing person’ incident so as not unduly jeopardize the  ongoing negotiation. We are still digging deeper,” he said.

Bugo barangay chairman Jesus Morial confirmed the kidnapping, and that the suspect is an aunt of the boy’s.

Morial said the boy, a first grader at a private school in Bugo, was kidnapped outside the school in Feb. 12.

Morial said he only learned of the kidnapping on Sunday when he checked reports about a child who went missing in his barangay.

Supt. Gervacio Balmaceda, Camp Alagar spokesperson, said police were confident that the boy was being taken care of given that the suspect is a close relative.

Balmaceda said the case is delicate, the reason the police would rather not go into details.