Kidnap brains of Cagayan business couple arrested

By Armand Tamaray

TUGUEGARAO CITY – Despite undergoing plastic surgery to alter his face and elude arrest, the “mastermind” behind the kidnapping of a wealthy Filipino-Chinese businesswoman here was nabbed last week.

Senior Supt. Jude Santos, Cagayan police director, said Joey Jose, who allegedly plotted the abduction of businesswoman Editha Chua on Aug. 15, 2001, was arrested by a joint police team in Rodriguez, Rizal on July 12.

Ranked ninth on the list of the region’s most wanted persons, Jose, 40, who used several aliases such as John Mark Bautista Quintana, carried a P100,000 reward for his arrest.

Santos, who was the regional police intelligence officer at the time of the kidnapping, said Jose changed his identity in his driver’s license and other personal iden­tification documents.

“But we were able to track him down when three of his cohorts were apprehended earlier,” he said.

“We want to give credit to our colleagues in Rodriguez, Rizal for their efforts leading to the arrest of the suspect.” Two more suspects in the kidnapping remain at large, Santos said.

Police records bared six men barged into the Chua residence here and seized the businesswoman, leaving her husband unconscious after they struck him with a gun.

Police rescued Chua at a police checkpoint a few hours later. But his kidnappers escaped the police dragnet.

The Chuas are engaged in wholesale business and run grocery stores here.