GENERAL SANTOS CITY, June 12 — Police arrested here over the weekend a female suspected member of a kidnap-for-ransom group who had been tagged in the abduction of four local businessmen in March 2015.
Chief Insp. Renato Salarda, chief of the city police station number 02, said Monday suspect Emily Pedecio Pedtukasan was nabbed by joint operatives on Saturday at a portion of Purok Sta. Cruz Silway in Barangay Dadiangas West here,
He said the operation was led by elements from the city police’s intelligence branch and the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Kidnapping Group (PNP-AKG)-Cotabato and Davao.
Salarda said intelligence operatives earlier confirmed Pedtukasan’s presence in the area following information from concerned residents.
He said the suspect did not resist arrest at her residencea based on a warrant issued by Regional Trial Court Judge Lacsaman Busran for kidnapping and serious illegal detention.
Pedtukasan, who also goes by aliases Princess Montalla, Tata and Irene, is included in the PNP-AKG’s “most wanted kidnappers” and number three in the second list that it issued.
Police said Pedtukasan was directly involved in the kidnapping of of business partners Engr. Jayson Cababayao, architect Raulito Suyom, Francis Wong Sepulvida and Steven Mula in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao on March 29, 2015.
The four victims, who were all from this city, were on their way to meet a prospective client in Cotabato City for a construction project when they were abducted.
Cababayao’s family owns the J Trade Concrete Products and Construction Supply here.
They were released more than a month later after their families allegedly paid ransom to the kidnappers, who were based in Maguindanao.
“She acted as a spotter for the group here. She created a scenario to lure the victims to go to Maguindanao,” Salarda said in an interview over TV Patrol Socksargen.
The police official said the suspect denied the accusation but noted that she had been positively identified by the victims themselves. AVE/PNA-northboundasia.com