Kidnap suspect eluded lawmen for 7 years

A man wanted by the court on a kidnapping charge was trapped by a team of policemen last week when he returned to his family in Virac after seven years in hiding.

With a P50,000 bounty on his head, Salvador Aguilar y Tablada surrendered to a joint team from the Virac PNP and the Catanduanes Police Provincial Office last November 12 at 7:30 A.M. in sitio Sogod, barangay Bigaa. His arrest was covered by a warrant issued by the Municipal Trial Court in connection with Criminal Case 4326 for kidnapping and serious illegal detention.

No bail was recommended for Aguilar's temporary liberty during the trial of the case, which was filed by Mr. and Mrs. Arnulfo Lopez of barangay Capilihan. It was the Lopezes' son, Eddie, then 9 years old, whom the suspect allegedly kidnapped on September 3, 1993. Aguilar's skill in evading apprehension landed him on the list of most wanted men in the Bicol region.

In his report to Mayor Jose U. Alberto II, chairman of the Municipal Peace and Order Council (MPOC), Virac police chief Supt. Rande V. Rosero recounted that sometime in the afternoon of November 11, he and Deputy Provincial Director Supt. Ramon Ranara were called for a meeting at the office of Supt. Rolando O. Gonzales.

Col. Gonzales told the two officers that one of the most wanted persons in Catanduanes had been seen in Bigaa and immediately instructed them to capture Aguilar.

Headed by Cols. Ranara and Rosero, the joint team was composed of Virac lawmen SPO2 Nelson Tabor, PO2 Lino Obias and PO2 Arlan Sevilla as well as SPO4 Domingo Tesorero and SPO1 Ely Panti from Camp Camacho.

At midnight of November 11, the team proceeded to Bigaa to scour the area pinpointed by a police asset as Aguilar's residence. It had been reported that the suspect, who seldom visited his family, arrived in the island last All Souls Day to visit the tombs of relatives.

It was already 6 A.M. the following day, Nov. 12, when the law enforcers finally surrounded Aguilar's house, leading to the arrest of the alleged kidnapper. Nearly two hours later, Aguilar was turned over to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) personnel who immediately placed him under detention.

Col. Rosero said the arrest was the conclusion of a month-long surveillance operation in Quezon City and in Catanduanes ordered by Supt. Gonzales.