Arturo Atayde Arrested for Involvement in Kidnap Gang

[USENET News System]

MANILA, Philippines (UPI) -- Elite troops arrested 14 members of a
kidnap gang, including government intelligence agents, whose victims
included two U.S. executives and several wealthy ethnic Chinese
Filipinos, the armed forces chief said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Vice President Joseph Estrada proposed the country impose
the death penalty on convicted kidnappers, especially rogue police
officers and soldiers.
Estrada, the country's anti-crime czar, also appealed to the Chinese
business community -- which has been the main target in a spate of
kidnappings -- to cooperate with authorities.
``Every time a victim chooses not to report or complain, the
syndicates become bolder,'' he told a Chinese business group.``They will
continue to strike if we choose not to fight, if they know that we are
afraid, and that they can get away with it.''
Many kidnap victims are reluctant to report their abductions because
of widespread fears that senior police officials are connected with the
syndicates.
Gen. Lisandro Abadia said the 14 suspects included a rich Filipino
businessman, who was tagged as the gang's financier, a member of the
National Bureau of Investigation, four agents of the Immigration bureau
and an army private.
The syndicate was behind several kidnappings involving millions of
dollars in ransoms, a number of murders and a series of auto thefts in
Manila and other urban centers, he told reporters.
``The successful results of our operations in the past three days are
a vivid proof of our sincerity and determination to rid our ranks of
scalawags and undesirables,'' said Abadia, who denied recent allegations
by Estrada that 90 percent of the kidnappers were members of the armed
forces.
Abadia said crack counter-intelligence agents arrested the group's
head and financier, Arturo Atayde, Monday in the capital's financial
district.
His capture led to the subsequent arrest of the other kidnap gang
members, including a top official of the Bureau of Immigration and
Deportation.
Abadia said Atayde confessed that the group had been involved in the
kidnapping of U.S. businessmen Greg Stillwell and John Keegan last year.
Military sources refused to reveal the home towns or employers of the
two Americans, who they said had been released after paying an
unspecified amount of money in ransom. They said Stillwell and Keegan
had recently left for Bangkok.
Atayde told reporters he joined the syndicate because he felt
confident he could be protected by the government agents in his group.
He added he gave Abadia a list of four military and six police generals
allegedly linked to the syndicate.
``I have given my written statement (to Abadia) and that will explain
everything...It could go deeper,'' Atayde said. Abadia declined comment
on Atayde's statement. But armed forces intelligence chief, Brig. Gen.
Alfredo Filler, told reporters that Atayde ``has started cooperating''
with authorities.
Abadia said immigration agents in the gang probably tipped the
kidnappers off when a potential victim entered the country.
President Fidel Ramos recently ordered the elite intelligence unit to
help police halt a spate of kidnappings, which is scaring off potential
foreign investors and threatens to scuttle the country's fragile
economic recovery.

[emilca...@gmail.com]

Wow. The husband of Sylvia Sanchez.