Tuesday, March 04, 2008 PNP chief orders hunt v. kidnappers By Malu C. Manar
KIDAPAWAN CITY -- The police chief in North Cotabato has alerted operatives of the province's elite task force to pursue vehicles believed to be plying the Cotabato-Sultan Kudarat route and looking for possible kidnap victims.
Senior Superintendent Lester Camba, provincial Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, said he already sent orders to the Cotabato Rapid Response Group (CRRG), a task force created early last year to hunt along the highway suspected kidnappers, motorcycle thieves, highway robbers, and other lawless criminals.
He also had the plate numbers of those vehicles believed to be involved in kidnapping checked by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Traffic Management Group (TMG).
At least three vehicles -- green van, white Toyota pick-up, and a black motorcycle -- were said to be involved.
"But we have to check the veracity of the report. For the meantime, I already alerted all the units," Camba said.
The text messages about the reported kidnapping of children have started circulating in North Cotabato since last week.
Another text message that reached an operative of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in North Cotabato said that a dead girl without a heart and other organs was dumped in a terminal in Tacurong City, early Monday.
Superintendent Joel Limson, chief of Tacurong City PNP, however, dismissed such report as baseless.
The text message has started circulating in Digos City and spread to other parts of Sultan Kudarat and is now in North Cotabato.
"I don't think there's truth to those text messages. But even then, I had ordered a thorough probe on this case," he said.
