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).