LOCAL GOV'T EXECS URGED TO SHOW
LEADERSHIP IN COMBATTING KIDNAPPINGS

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said he shares the joy and feeling of relief of the Filipino nation over the safe release and recovery of Italian priest Fr. Giancarlo Bossi about a month after he was abducted by extremist elements in Mindanao.

Pimentel said the government, military, police and people should work hand in hand in combatting kidnap, extortion and other criminal elements in Mindanao to prevent the repetition of the Bossi abduction.

"The freeing of Fr. Bossi is the good news. The bad news is that the culprits would apparently still ply their nefarious trade," the senator from Mindanao said.

"It is time the bad elements operating as kidnap and extortion gangs even in Moroland should be disbanded and stopped in their tracks."

Otherwise, Pimentel said they provide the rationale for the spiraling of violence in Moroland where the innocent Muslim traders, peasants, professionals, women and children wind up as victims.

"Again, the government should call upon the local government leaders to show their leadership in combatting crime like kidnapping in their respective areas of responsibility," he said.