Gunmen have raided a tourist resort on the southern Philippine island of Palawan seizing 20 people, including three American tourists.
The chairman of the Philippine's Security Council says the kidnappers have been spotted in a boat with the hostages off the southern coast of Palawan near Malaysia.
Police said about 20 men, armed with assault rifles, carried out Sunday's (May 27) raid at about 5 am (2100 GMT Saturday) on Dos Palmas resort on Arrecifi island, near the Palawan provincial capital of Puerto Princessa.
On arriving at the resort, about 600 kilometres (375 miles) southwest of Manila, the raiders casually walked to a pavilion where several staff members were working and held them at gunpoint, resort guards said.
Others went to cottages built on stilts over the water and grabbed guests who were sleeping inside.
Three Americans, thirteen domestic tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and four resort guards and staff were abducted.
Police identified the three Americans as Martin Burnham and his wife, Gracia, both missionaries of the congregation New Tribes Mission.
They have been working with cultural minorities in the Philippines for 15 years and were vacationing at the resort.
The other American, a tourist, was vacationing at the resort with his Filipina girlfriend.
The raiders took them both.
The raiders were also apparently hungry because refrigerators had been ransacked, and some of them went to the resort kitchen to forage for more food, officials said.
Witnesses said many of the 10 women tourists who were among the hostages taken were in tears as their captors forced them at gunpoint into a motorboat that took them to an unknown destination.
Hours after the attack on Dos Palmas resort, a motorboat believed to be carrying the gunmen and their hostages was spotted by military aircraft near the maritime border with Malaysia, said national security adviser Roilo Golez.
"The armed forces have already dispatched a hot pursuit team and the latest is that a vessel of that description, suspected to be the vessel used in the hostage-taking, has been sighted near Buksug Island near the southern tip of Palawan. The surveillance was done by the Philippine Airforce and the Navy has already dispatched ships to but if ransom is their motive we want to emphasise that the policy of the Arroyo administration is no ransom and no negotiation with armed bandits", Golez said.
Golez could not confirm whether the kidnappers were members of the fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf rebel force, a separatist group whose avowed goal is to set up an Islamic state in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country.
The Abu Sayyaf last year seized more than 40 foreigners and Filipinos from two tourist resorts in nearby Malaysia and from Jolo island in the southern Philippines.
Many of the victims were released by the Abu Sayyaf after big ransoms were paid.
Some were rescued by soldiers and others escaped.
One Filipino resort worker kidnapped last year is still held.
Police reports said the raiders were talking in Tausog, a dialect usually spoken by Muslims on Jolo island, where the Abu Sayyaf rebels operate.
Police said the raiders left in the two boats with their victims.
One of the boats was seen speeding off to the northeast, in the direction of other tourist resorts in the area.
All other tourist resorts on Palawan have been put on alert and Navy ships as well air force helicopters had stepped up security around the island, the military said.
| Reference | 5615/01 |
| Tape | 7218 |
| Issue | |
| Can | |
| Source | REUTERS/ABS CBN WORLD 5 27 MAY 2001 EDIT: 716 |
| Restrictions | Restrictions on certain uses may apply, and may vary from those listed. PART NO ACCESS PHILIPPINES |
| Time code | 15.59.43 - 16.01.54 |
| Date original | MAY 27, 2001+ FILE |
| Duration | 2.10 |
| Technical | |
| Subset | Reuters Television |
| Location | ARRECIF ISLAND, PALAWAN/ MANILA, PHILIPPINES |
| Sound | NATURAL WITH ENGLISH SPEECH |
| Colourbw | COLOUR |
| ARRECIFI ISLAND, PALAWAN , PHILIPPINES (FILE) (ABS CBN - NO ACCESS PHILIPPINES) | ||
| 1. | GVS: WIDE OF DOS PALMAS RESORT/ TOURISTS AT RESORT/ PEOPLE GETTING KEYS/ BOATS OFF COAST OF RESORT/ PAN ACROSS RESORT/ WIDE OF LOBBY AREA/ LONG SHOT OF RESORT/ POOL (11 SHOTS) | 0.28 |
| MANILA, PHILIPPINES (MAY 27, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) | ||
| 2. | CU: SOUNDBITE (English) NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL CHAIRMAN ROILO GOLEZ SAYING: "At about 0520 this morning a group of armed men went to the resort Dos Palmas in Honda bay near Puerto Princessa and took twenty hostages 2 Americans, one Spanish, 12 Philipino-Chinese and took them away on a motorised Banca. The armed forces have already dispatched a hot pursuit team and the latest is that a vessel of that description, suspected to be the vessel used in the hostage-taking, has been sighted near Buksug Island near the southern tip of Palawan. The surveillance was done by the Philippine Airforce and the Navy has already dispatched ships to intercept this vessel... we don't know but if ransom is their motive we want to emphasise that the policy of the Arroyo administration is no ransom and no negotiation with armed bandits" (Question - Are they Abu Sayyaf?) "We have no idea, we don't want to speculate, we will find out." | 2.01 |
| ARRECIFI ISLAND, PALAWAN , PHILIPPINES (FILE) (ABS CBN - NO ACCESS PHILIPPINES) | ||
| 3. | GV/PAN: PAN ACROSS GOLF COURSE AT RESORT/ PEOPLE PADDLING KAYAKS/ WIDE SHOT OF WATER (2 SHOTS) | 2.10 |
May 14, 2001, ABS-CBN,10:41 PM, Enron drops RP investment bid,
December 2, 2008, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Suspect in kidnap-slay falls, by Jocelyn Uy ,
MANILA, Philippines – After seven long years, police caught on Sunday in Cainta, Rizal province, the prime suspect in the kidnapping and murder of Mark Harris Bacalla, the son of a Quezon City judge.
The arrest of Onofre Surat Jr. was announced by Philippine National Police Director General Jesus Verzosa in a statement Monday.
Surat is reportedly a member of a kidnap-for-ransom group. He is in the list of the country’s most wanted persons with a P500,000 bounty on his head.
Verzosa said Surat’s arrest was the result of intensified manhunt operations after the suspect escaped from their custody on June 3, 2001.
A tipster, who was not identified for security reasons, told police about Surat’s whereabouts, PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Nicanor Bartolome said.
“The civilian informer will be awarded the P500,000 bounty after proper processing and documentation of the release of the money,” he told Inquirer on the phone.
Operatives of the Cainta and Antipolo police and the intelligence branch of the Rizal police provincial office, headed by Senior Supt. Irenio Dordas, arrested Surat at around 1 p.m. Sunday at the Cainta Junction.
The suspect was apprehended on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by Judge Vivencio Baclig of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 76 for kidnapping for ransom with murder and illegal possession of firearms, Verzosa said.
Records of the Police Anti-Crime and Emergency Response had linked Surat to Bacalla’s abduction on May 2, 2001. The 23-year-old victim was the son of the late Quezon City Judge Marciano Bacalla.
Surat’s group allegedly demanded P4 million for the victim’s freedom. The family initially paid P442,000 on May 8, 2001 in Sta. Mesa, Manila.
The group, who had already killed the victim, demanded that the unsuspecting family pay the rest of the ransom just the same.
Bacalla’s body was recovered a few days later in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija province.
One of his alleged captors, Rizaldy Cariño, was arrested while receiving the money.
Cariño, who was handed a 6- 12 year jail term, claimed Surat was the mastermind.
©2008 www.inquirer.net all rights reserved
__________________________________________________
December 10, 2008, Manila Bulletin, CV cops intensify intelligence operations
CEBU CITY — The Police Region 7 Office (PRO 7) has intensified its intelligence operations even as it launched a drive to arrest wanted persons. PRO7 Director Ronald Roderos said that the intelligence operations unit should double its efforts to arrest the most wanted criminals. "I have already ordered provincial and city directors in the region to give priority to the arrest of persons wanted by law by intensifying intelligence operations," he said. Earlier, PNP chief Director-General Jesus Verzosa directed all police commanders nationwide to intensify and strengthen police intelligence operations in connection with the drive to arrest wanted persons. Verzosa’s recent instructions to the field commanders cited the arrest of the country’s 15th most wanted person, Onofre Surat Jr. Surat had eluded arrest since 2001. He was wanted for alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murder of 23-year- old Mark Harris Bacalla. The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has offered P500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Surat. (Phoebe Jen Indino)
______________________________________________________
June 9, 2001, The Philippine Star, Bacalla kidnap charges filed; suspects may get death — DOJ, by Delon Porcalla and Mike Frialde
Three suspects who admitted having kidnapped and killed a son of the late Quezon City Judge Marciano Bacalla on May 3 will suffer capital punishment if convicted by the court, the Department of Justice said.
"Kidnapping-for-ransom with homicide is punishable by death. We recommended no bail for their release," said State Prosecutor Perfecto Lawrence Chua Cheng, a member of the inquest team headed by Richard Anthony Fadullon.
DOJ prosecutors filed yesterday morning kidnap-slay charges in the Quezon City Regional Trial Court against CBR club owner Onofre Surat, 38, the alleged mastermind, doorman Rodrigo Catungal, 22, and waiter Jerro Garcia, 22.
Surat admitted to reporters last Wednesday they abducted and accidentally killed his friend Mark Henry Bacalla, 24, after a drinking bout. He said they were only after the ransom, but he gave them no choice when he put up a fight.
Surat faces additional charges of illegal possession of firearms for being caught with an unlicensed 9mm pistol, according to Cheng, and violation of the Comelec gun ban which expires on June 30.
Cheng said they will move to "consolidate" the kidnapping charges against six other cohorts of Surat who were caught receiving part of the ransom, now pending in the sala of Judge Monina Zeñarosa, by filing an "amended information."
The National Bureau of Investigation presented the testimonies of guest relations officers Rosita Galvez and Marie Mondares who narrated that they escorted Bacalla, Catungal and Garcia from the CBR club to Surat’s Honda Civic car.
Surat was collared by NBI agents under the Special Action Unit headed by lawyer Edmund Arugay. Justice Secretary Hernando Perez said the case is now considered "solved" with their arrests, whom NBI chief Wycoco said were "amateur kidnappers."
The Bacalla family paid P142,000 ransom on May 8. The second payment was made nine days later where the family shelled out another P490,000. It was at this juncture that another suspect, Zaldy Cariño, was arrested and charged along with five others.
PNP-Intelligence Group chief Reynaldo Berroya said Cariño, who was caught receiving the ransom money, was "positively identified" by Mrs. Ofelia Bacalla. He is now detained at the CIDG jail in Camp Crame, along with the other suspects.
The young Bacalla’s body was dumped in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija on May 17. He had been mauled to death.
Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation said yesterday there is no rift between it and the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group over the Mark Bacalla kidnap and murder case.
"As far as we are concerned, the case is now considered closed, unless the PNP comes up with new developments. The CIDG is now the main anti-kidnapping unit. If this report is not corrected, nobody will now approach them to ask for help as their agents are now being perceived as among those involved in the crime," Wycoco said.
Wycoco also brushed-off reports of credit grabbing in the solution of the Bacalla case.
"There is no credit grabbing in this case. The PNP-CIDG and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were the ones originally involved in the case. There is no room for credit grabbing in the Arroyo administration," he said.
____________________________________________________________________
September 30, 2003, The Philippine Star, Death for killers of judge’s son, by Pia Lee-Brago,
Enron Power Corp., a United States-based energy firm, on Monday reportedly dropped its bid to invest P4.8 billion in the construction of that Bulacan Biomass plant after it failed to secure P3 billion to finance the project.
In an interview, EEI Corp. chairman Rizalino Navarro said Enron instead decided to concentrate on selling power to the state-owned National Power Corp. and Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
"Enron said it would rather concentrate on trading," Navarro said.
EEI was one of the construction firms that supposedly would bid for the project.
Navarro added that the project has long been delayed because Enron negotiated with a number of commercial banks last year.
The Bulacan Biomass plant, which would use rice hulls to generate power, is one of the government's projects aimed at reducing the country's dependency on imported crude.
Enron has been involved in the country's power generation since 1993. It operates a 110-megawatt Bunker C fuel-fired facility in Batangas and another 116-mw power plant in Zambales.
The Bulacan Biomass project was a joint venture between Enron and local holdings company House of Investments (HI), until the US power firm withdrew.
Enron was supposed to have 50-percent ownership while HI would have a 42.7 % stake.
In November 1996, Enron broke new ground by completing the first condensate fuel supply agreement in Asia. Enron and the Lopez-owned First Gas Power Corp. reached an agreement to support a 1,000-mw power plant located in Batangas City.
The combined-cycle gas turbine plant, which is currently undergoing performance testing, would be selling electricity to power retailer Meralco, another Lopez-controlled firm. Under the fuel agreement, Enron would supply 30,000 to 35,000 barrels per day of liquid fuel to the facility for a period of 15 years.
____________________________________________________________________________
In an interview, EEI Corp. chairman Rizalino Navarro said Enron instead decided to concentrate on selling power to the state-owned National Power Corp. and Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
"Enron said it would rather concentrate on trading," Navarro said.
EEI was one of the construction firms that supposedly would bid for the project.
Navarro added that the project has long been delayed because Enron negotiated with a number of commercial banks last year.
The Bulacan Biomass plant, which would use rice hulls to generate power, is one of the government's projects aimed at reducing the country's dependency on imported crude.
Enron has been involved in the country's power generation since 1993. It operates a 110-megawatt Bunker C fuel-fired facility in Batangas and another 116-mw power plant in Zambales.
The Bulacan Biomass project was a joint venture between Enron and local holdings company House of Investments (HI), until the US power firm withdrew.
Enron was supposed to have 50-percent ownership while HI would have a 42.7 % stake.
In November 1996, Enron broke new ground by completing the first condensate fuel supply agreement in Asia. Enron and the Lopez-owned First Gas Power Corp. reached an agreement to support a 1,000-mw power plant located in Batangas City.
The combined-cycle gas turbine plant, which is currently undergoing performance testing, would be selling electricity to power retailer Meralco, another Lopez-controlled firm. Under the fuel agreement, Enron would supply 30,000 to 35,000 barrels per day of liquid fuel to the facility for a period of 15 years.
____________________________________________________________________________
December 2, 2008, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Suspect in kidnap-slay falls, by Jocelyn Uy ,
MANILA, Philippines – After seven long years, police caught on Sunday in Cainta, Rizal province, the prime suspect in the kidnapping and murder of Mark Harris Bacalla, the son of a Quezon City judge.
The arrest of Onofre Surat Jr. was announced by Philippine National Police Director General Jesus Verzosa in a statement Monday.
Surat is reportedly a member of a kidnap-for-ransom group. He is in the list of the country’s most wanted persons with a P500,000 bounty on his head.
Verzosa said Surat’s arrest was the result of intensified manhunt operations after the suspect escaped from their custody on June 3, 2001.
A tipster, who was not identified for security reasons, told police about Surat’s whereabouts, PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Nicanor Bartolome said.
“The civilian informer will be awarded the P500,000 bounty after proper processing and documentation of the release of the money,” he told Inquirer on the phone.
Operatives of the Cainta and Antipolo police and the intelligence branch of the Rizal police provincial office, headed by Senior Supt. Irenio Dordas, arrested Surat at around 1 p.m. Sunday at the Cainta Junction.
The suspect was apprehended on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by Judge Vivencio Baclig of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 76 for kidnapping for ransom with murder and illegal possession of firearms, Verzosa said.
Records of the Police Anti-Crime and Emergency Response had linked Surat to Bacalla’s abduction on May 2, 2001. The 23-year-old victim was the son of the late Quezon City Judge Marciano Bacalla.
Surat’s group allegedly demanded P4 million for the victim’s freedom. The family initially paid P442,000 on May 8, 2001 in Sta. Mesa, Manila.
The group, who had already killed the victim, demanded that the unsuspecting family pay the rest of the ransom just the same.
Bacalla’s body was recovered a few days later in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija province.
One of his alleged captors, Rizaldy Cariño, was arrested while receiving the money.
Cariño, who was handed a 6- 12 year jail term, claimed Surat was the mastermind.
©2008 www.inquirer.net all rights reserved
__________________________________________________
December 10, 2008, Manila Bulletin, CV cops intensify intelligence operations
CEBU CITY — The Police Region 7 Office (PRO 7) has intensified its intelligence operations even as it launched a drive to arrest wanted persons. PRO7 Director Ronald Roderos said that the intelligence operations unit should double its efforts to arrest the most wanted criminals. "I have already ordered provincial and city directors in the region to give priority to the arrest of persons wanted by law by intensifying intelligence operations," he said. Earlier, PNP chief Director-General Jesus Verzosa directed all police commanders nationwide to intensify and strengthen police intelligence operations in connection with the drive to arrest wanted persons. Verzosa’s recent instructions to the field commanders cited the arrest of the country’s 15th most wanted person, Onofre Surat Jr. Surat had eluded arrest since 2001. He was wanted for alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murder of 23-year- old Mark Harris Bacalla. The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has offered P500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Surat. (Phoebe Jen Indino)
______________________________________________________
June 9, 2001, The Philippine Star, Bacalla kidnap charges filed; suspects may get death — DOJ, by Delon Porcalla and Mike Frialde
Three suspects who admitted having kidnapped and killed a son of the late Quezon City Judge Marciano Bacalla on May 3 will suffer capital punishment if convicted by the court, the Department of Justice said.
"Kidnapping-for-ransom with homicide is punishable by death. We recommended no bail for their release," said State Prosecutor Perfecto Lawrence Chua Cheng, a member of the inquest team headed by Richard Anthony Fadullon.
DOJ prosecutors filed yesterday morning kidnap-slay charges in the Quezon City Regional Trial Court against CBR club owner Onofre Surat, 38, the alleged mastermind, doorman Rodrigo Catungal, 22, and waiter Jerro Garcia, 22.
Surat admitted to reporters last Wednesday they abducted and accidentally killed his friend Mark Henry Bacalla, 24, after a drinking bout. He said they were only after the ransom, but he gave them no choice when he put up a fight.
Surat faces additional charges of illegal possession of firearms for being caught with an unlicensed 9mm pistol, according to Cheng, and violation of the Comelec gun ban which expires on June 30.
Cheng said they will move to "consolidate" the kidnapping charges against six other cohorts of Surat who were caught receiving part of the ransom, now pending in the sala of Judge Monina Zeñarosa, by filing an "amended information."
The National Bureau of Investigation presented the testimonies of guest relations officers Rosita Galvez and Marie Mondares who narrated that they escorted Bacalla, Catungal and Garcia from the CBR club to Surat’s Honda Civic car.
Surat was collared by NBI agents under the Special Action Unit headed by lawyer Edmund Arugay. Justice Secretary Hernando Perez said the case is now considered "solved" with their arrests, whom NBI chief Wycoco said were "amateur kidnappers."
The Bacalla family paid P142,000 ransom on May 8. The second payment was made nine days later where the family shelled out another P490,000. It was at this juncture that another suspect, Zaldy Cariño, was arrested and charged along with five others.
PNP-Intelligence Group chief Reynaldo Berroya said Cariño, who was caught receiving the ransom money, was "positively identified" by Mrs. Ofelia Bacalla. He is now detained at the CIDG jail in Camp Crame, along with the other suspects.
The young Bacalla’s body was dumped in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija on May 17. He had been mauled to death.
Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation said yesterday there is no rift between it and the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group over the Mark Bacalla kidnap and murder case.
"As far as we are concerned, the case is now considered closed, unless the PNP comes up with new developments. The CIDG is now the main anti-kidnapping unit. If this report is not corrected, nobody will now approach them to ask for help as their agents are now being perceived as among those involved in the crime," Wycoco said.
Wycoco also brushed-off reports of credit grabbing in the solution of the Bacalla case.
"There is no credit grabbing in this case. The PNP-CIDG and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were the ones originally involved in the case. There is no room for credit grabbing in the Arroyo administration," he said.
____________________________________________________________________
September 30, 2003, The Philippine Star, Death for killers of judge’s son, by Pia Lee-Brago,
A Quezon City court handed down the death penalty on former nightclub employees yesterday for the abduction and killing of the son of the Quezon City Judge Marciano Bacalla two years ago.
Jerro Garcia, 25, a resident of San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan, and former doorman of CBR Pub House in Lagro, Quezon City, and Rodrigo Catungal, 25, of Tala, Caloocan City, former waiter of the same club, received the sentence in a decision penned by Judge Monina Zenarosa of Branch 76.
Gracia surrendered to police on June 6, 2001 while Catungal was arrested on June 3.
The court found Garcia and Catungal guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the charges of kidnapping with ransom and homicide for the abduction and killing of Mark Harris Bacalla, 23, student, of 303 Litex Road, Barangay Commonwealth, Quezon City on May 3, 2001 in Lagro, Quezon City.
The court also ordered Garcia and Catungal to pay the victim’s family P92,000 for actual damages, P50,000 for moral damages, P50,000 for civil damages, and P442,000 for the ransom given to the accused in exchange for Bacalla’s freedom.
Two others escaped the death chamber. Rizaldy Cariño, 37, taxi driver, of Sampaloc, Manila, was sentenced by the court to 12 years imprisonment while Sammy Pader, 31, of Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija was acquitted for lack of evidence.
Pader’s 47-year-old uncle, Felino, a farmer in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija, had turned state witness and identified accused Onofre Surat Jr., 40, a US citizen and owner of the pub house as the alleged mastermind in the slaying of Bacalla.
Surat, who was arrested by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation on June 3, 2001 in Pasig City, remains at large after he escaped by breaking the window of the X-ray room of the East Avenue Medical Center on June 29, 2001 while undergoing examination at the hospital.
Surat, Garcia, Catungal, Cariño and Pader were all charged for the abduction and killing of Bacalla.
On the eve of his abduction, Bacalla sought permission from his mother, Ofelia, to attend the birthday party of a schoolmate in Fairview.
But instead of going there, the victim proceeded to the pub house to attend Surat’s party.
The victim left the pub house in the early morning of May 3 and as he was boarding his orange Honda Civic (ECF-858), three of the accused — Surat, Garcia, Catungal — offered to drive him home.
Bacalla declined the offer, but the accused insisted on driving him home.
In his testimony, Felino said Surat, Garcia and Catungal arrived in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija on May 3 at around 7 a.m. Surat had admitted to him that they killed someone and that the body was inside the car.
Felino said he was asked by Surat to bury the victim‘s body. When he refused, Surat allegedly threatened to kill him.
He agreed to bury Bacalla’s body in Barangay Rizal, Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija because he feared for his life and the safety of his nephew, Sammy, who cooked food for the accused while they were at the province.
Felino said he immediately reported the incident to the police after the accused returned to Manila.
After the abduction, Bacalla’s mother received a text message that read: "salbahe ang anak mo, binangga kami." She also received another text message asking P4 million in in exchange for her son’s freedom.
Negotiations were made to bring the price down, with the family unaware that the captive was strangled and already dead.
Police arrested Cariño on May 17, 2001 in Quezon City after receiving an envelope containing P490,000 in ransom. Bacalla’s body was found in Barangay Rizal in Nueva Ecija on May 21, 2001.
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