ONE of the country’s most wanted kidnappers is now in jail after being arrested by agents of the Philippine National Police Anti-Kidnapping Group (PNP-AKG) in his hiding place in Valenzuela City last week, PNP-AKG Director, Brigadier General Rodolfo D. Castil Jr. said yesterday.

The official said that the suspect with the alias “Buddha” is listed as the 5th most wanted kidnapping-for-ransom in their list. The 34-year-old suspect was arrested along Salazar Street in Barangay Parada in Valenzuela City.

In a report to PNP chief, General Rodolfo D. Azurin Jr., the PNP-AKG director said that his men were assisted by operatives from the Parañaque City Police Station and the Northern Police District Mobile Force Battalion in arresting the suspect around 2 p.m. last January 6.

A resident of Bgy. Bignay in Valenzuela City, the suspect is the subject of a non-bailable warrant of arrest for kidnapping-for-ransom (KFR) and serious illegal detention issued by Judge Romel S. Odronia of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 92 on September 20 last year.

Castil said that the suspect had been identified as a member of the Gonzales KFR Group responsible for the kidnapping of James Elijah Yap in Quezon City on December 31, 2020.

Weeks after the QC kidnapping incident, PNP-AKG operatives arrested a woman suspected of having masterminded the abduction of the 21-year-old student while he was biking in New Manila, QC.

The victim was released unharmed by his captors around 9:25 p.m. last January 5 near a convenience store along Marcelino Street in Ermita, Manila, after paying a P1.505 million ransom to the kidnappers.

It turned out that the kidnappers initially demanded a P200 million ransom from the victim’s family but later reduced the amount to P1.5 million during a series of negotiations.

The female suspect, a resident of Obando, Bulacan confessed to having masterminded the kidnapping of the student following her arrest.

The PNP-AKG later launched a manhunt for the woman’s husband, one “Emil,”; one alias “Bad Boy,”; alias “Ren,”; alias “Batman,”; and “Buddha.”

In April 2021, two suspected members of the same KFR gang were killed in a gunbattle with PNP-AKG agents in Parañaque City.

Castil commended the AKG operatives who arrested the suspect with the help of the Parañaque City Police Station and the NPD DMFB even as he assured the public that they are continuing their all-out operation to arrest all kidnapping-for-ransom personalities in the country.

“We are assuring the public that their safety is our top most priority. With that, I guarantee everybody that our tracker teams are out there to capture not only wanted kidnappers but also other lawbreakers in the country,” the official said.

The arrested suspect is now being held at the PNP-AKG lock-up facility in Camp Crame pending official orders from the court.