Kidnappers free RP businessman

Kidnappers free RP businessman

COTABATO, Philippines (Reuter): Kidnappers freed a Filipino businessman held captive for four months after they received 1.1 million pesos (US$45,000), New Year calendars and other "Christmas gifts", officials said yesterday.

A band of 40 gunmen handed hardware store owner Sixto Escudero, 70, over to councillor Luigi Cuerpo on Monday night in a forested village in North Cotabato province, 900 kilometers southeast of Manila.

Apart from the 1995 calendars and the cash the kidnappers demanded as payment for Escudero's "board and lodging", the businessman's relatives also gave the gang a radio and T-shirts as Christmas gifts, police said.

Escudero was abducted from his store on Sept. 4 by one of several kidnap gangs preying on rich businessmen, mostly ethnic Chinese, in the Cotabato area. His kidnappers had originally demanded a ransom of seven million pesos ($285,700).