I’M referring to the five young men who found themselves being sentenced to life last week by the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 19 which found them guilty of kidnapping a young Letran student in August 2018, thanks to the solid partnership between a victim who was ‘not afraid to show his face,’ the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group, the Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order and the Department of Justice.

Last Wednesday, the five identified as Ferdinand dela Vega Jr, Justine Mahipus, Ralph Emanuel Camaya, Billy Rocillo and Gabriel Rabi were convicted for kidnapping-for-ransom and serious illegal detention under Article 267 of the Revised Penal Code by Judge Mario Alagar who found them guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

I learned that the parents of the five knelt and cried unabashedly when they tried to ask for forgiveness from the family of Denzhel Gomez, then a student of Colegio de San Juan de Letran whom they kidnapped on August 1, 2018. The suspects then demanded a P30 million ransom for his safe release.

However, the victim’s family stood their ground and decided that the case should be prosecuted to the hilt to give a lesson to other would-be kidnappers. The court also gave full weight to the testimonies from the victim himself as well as the pieces of evidence and testimonies presented by officers and men of the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group who rescued the latter and the DOJ prosecutors.

The five who were sentenced to suffer reclusion perpetua and pay civil damages to the victim’s family have been considered as the youngest members of a kidnapping group since they are all in their early 20s, said Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order or MRPO chair, Architect Ka Kuen Chua.

All five were former students of the same school who conspired with each other in abducting the victim and then calling his father Aldrich to demand a whopping P30 million ransom for his safe freedom, the court said.

Records of the case showed that the elder Gomez immediately reported the incident to the PNP-AKG whose men immediately launched an investigation into the incident. According to PNP-AKG director, Brigadier General Rod Dimas, his investigators negotiated with Atabay who acted in behalf of his fellows.

During the course of the negotiation, Dimas said that the suspect was discovered to be one of the kidnappers leading to the conduct of a rescue operation following pieces of information revealed by the latter.

The victim was rescued by PNP-AKG agents inside the kidnappers’ safehouse locate at no. 285 Nava Street in Barangay 132, Zone II, District I in Balut, Tondo. During questioning, Mahipus confessed his knowledge on the circumstances regarding the kidnapping of Gomez and pinpointed Atabay as the ‘brains’ behind the abduction of the victim.

In his extra-judicial confession, Mahipus also identified the other accused leading to their arrest. In their defense, the accused raised the ‘defense of alibi’ in denying their knowledge of the kidnapping. They also argued that the victim was undergoing initiation as a requirement for his membership in their fraternity although the court did not believe them.

Ka Kuen Chua thanked the PNP-AKG and Department of Justice Deputy State Prosecutor Olive Torrevillas for fully partnering with them and the victim’s family to ensure the successful prosecution of the suspects.

“Crime does not pay. As the saying goes, evil triumphs if good men do nothing,” the MRPO chairman said. I was told that the MRPO founded by Ms. Teresita Ang See supported the Gomez family from the day they learned of his kidnapping until he was rescued and his abductors arrested, jailed and prosecuted to the hilt.

According to Architect Chua, they saw to it that the family will be given valuable inputs during the negotiation and subsequent counseling which convinced them to file a case against the suspects.

Congratulations to the MRPO, the PNP-AKG and the DOJ for scoring their latest conviction. Actually, the MRPO is known for convincing previous kidnapping-for-ransom victims in the country to ‘show their faces’ and not be afraid in testifying against their abductors since the law is always on their side.

The conviction of the five came just days before the PNP-AKG is to mark its 10th founding anniversary on Thursday amid its success in arresting kidnapping-for-ransom gangs in the country and sending more arrested kidnappers to jail.

PNP-AKG records showed that from January 1 to December 31, 2021, the unit investigated 23 kidnapping-for-ransom cases, 12 POGO-related kidnapping cases and five hoax or fake kidnapping incidents.

Brig. Gen. Dimas told me that they filed 22 criminal charges for kidnapping-for-ransom against arrested kidnappers and also hauled to jail two for violation of Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulations Act of 2013 and another man who is wanted for direct assault upon a person of authority with attempted homicide.

The official said that last year saw the promulgation of three KFR with serious illegal detention cases leading to the conviction of 16 arrested suspects. Dimas said that their intensified manhunt operations in 2021 likewise led in the arrest of 45 wanted kidnappers; 16 for involvement in POGO-related kidnapping cases; and 281 persons who are the subject of various warrants of arrest in line with the instruction of Gen. Carlos to account for all wanted persons across the country.

PNP-AKG operatives also shot dead seven heavily-armed kidnapping suspects following gunbattles and put to jail 33 men accused of involvement in KFR incidents. Another three armed suspects were killed in firefights with AKG agents out to arrest them. Those operations led in the seizure of 74 loose firearms, 581 assorted live ammunition and seven explosives.

As of press time, Dimas said that they are hot on the trail of at least 98 known members of 11 KFR gangs operating in Luzon. In coordination with other PNP territorial and national operational support units and the Armed Forces, the PNP-AKG is also tracking down some 483 identified members of 13 KFR gangs based in Mindanao including those from the notorious Abu Sayyaf Group.