Businessman kidnapped in Bukidnon over botched deal

CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 13 August) — A Lanao del Sur-based businessman was kidnapped by his childhood friend over a botched deal in Kalilangan town in Bukidnon last Friday, police said.

Lt. Col. Michelle Olaivar, spokesperson of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Region 10, said the kidnapper demanded P2 million ransom for the release of Engineer Abdel Fahar Mapandi hours after he was abducted in Kalilangan, Bukidnon.

“We already consider this as a kidnapping case and we have identified his childhood friend as the suspect,” Olaivar said.

Map shows Kalilangan, Bukidnon and Lanao del Sur. Map courtesy of Google Maps

In a report to the PNP regional headquarters, the police station in Kalilangan said that at around 3 a.m. on Friday, armed men, some dressed in PNP blue sportswear and fatigues, barged into the house of Omar Bayabao, a resident of Kalilangan town where Mapandi spent the night. 

The report said the suspects dragged the victim to their waiting vehicles—a black Toyota pickup; a white Toyota Hi-ace van and a Toyota Vios — and fled towards the nearby province of Lanao del Sur.

“Along the way, the victim called his wife using the mobile phone of his friend that his abductors are demanding a ransom of P2 million,” Olaivar said.

Olaivar said Mapandi was in Kalilangan town after securing a deal with a telecom company who bought several real estate properties for their communication towers.

She said the suspect, who was a business partner of the victim, thought that the property they offered to the telecom company was sold at a high price.

“Actually the sale of the property was lower but the suspect thought Mapandi kept the money from him. That was the motive of the kidnapping,” Olaivar said.

Olaivar said police units in Bukidnon and Lanao del Sur are coordinating with the family of the suspect to free Mapandi. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)