Suspect in Cotabato kidnap falls

PIGCAWAYAN, North Cotabato, Philippines – Police now have custody of one of the five suspects in the bungled kidnapping here of a 10 year-old girl the other day.

The suspect, Datu Junar Ulangkaya, has confessed being a member of a “special operations group” of a secessionist Moro faction.

Another suspect, Saudi Hashim, died when their getaway car rammed into a roadside railing as they tried to escape toward Maguindanao with the victim, a Grade 5 pupil of a private school here. The kidnappers shot the girl’s father dead as they seized her. The girl was eventually rescued.