LINGAYEN—The long arm of the law finally caught up with a suspected member of a notorious kidnap for-ransom (KFR) gang believed responsible for the abduction of two traders in Pangasinan in 2002.

Police Provincial Director Sr. Supt. Isagani Nerez said investigators are digging deeper to determine if the group of the suspect, Roland Pidlaoan, 36, was also involved in the kidnapping of other personalities, including that of Barangay Chairman Roland Villegas of Anonang, San Fabian.

Pidlaoan was arrested by combined elements from the Special Operations Group, Provincial Intelligence Branch, Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER) and the Urbiztondo and Mangatarem Police Station by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued by Regional Trial Court Judge Manuel Pastor Jr. of Rosales.

The suspect, who was in hiding in the last five years, denied his involvement in kidnapping and in any other criminal activities, saying he is just an ordinary farmer who cannot even support the needs of his family.

His relatives insist that Pidlaoan had nothing to do with the crimes imputed against him because his family still lives an impoverished life.

Nerez tagged Pidlaoan as one of two remaining members of the dreaded Quitaleg KFR gang responsible for the kidnapping of a woman trader from Carmen, Rosales and a Filipino-Chinese businessman from Dagupan City, both in 2002.

The Quitaleg Gang, like its ally the Bocala Gang, headed by an engineer from Bani and Bayambang, was known to have been operating in the Northern, Central and Southern Luzon regions.

The Quitaleg KFR gang reportedly demanded P3 million to P50 million ransoms from relatives of their victims, said Nerez.

“I am 100 per cent certain that Pidlaoan was involved in the kidnapping of the two traders from Pangasinan,” said Nerez who worked with PACER before he was assigned as police provincial director of Pangasinan.

Nerez said Pidlaoan and his companion Danny Aquino were identified but went into hiding after they became leaderless with the death of their gang head, Ramil Quitaleg, in a shootout in Dau, Mabalacat, Pampanga in 2002 with agents of PACER.

Nerez said Pidlaoan and Aquino resurfaced after the May election last year as guns-for-hire.

GUNS-FOR-HIRE

Meanwhile, Nerez said five guns-for-hire have been killed in Dagupan City, Urdaneta City, Manaoag, Villasis and Malasiqui in the last few months.

The latest was Edwin Racho alias “Boy Bisaya” who was killed in a shoot-out with agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group last month inside a school campus in Dagupan.

Racho was tagged as the suspect in the gunslaying of Sandra Frias, a top official of the Central Pangasinan Electric Cooperative last June 11, and of lawyer Conrado “Pacpac” Soriano of San Carlos City last year after the election.

Another suspected gun-for-hire was shot and killed in another shoot-out with lawmen in Urdaneta City while the three others were eliminated either by vigilantes or liquidated by members of their own group.—LM

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