KFR gang, NPA 'permit to campaign' letters back
Members of a Kidnap-For-Ransom (KFR) syndicate are reportedly back in the city with weeks of planned surveillance on prospective targets.
Also back are extortion letters passed as offers for "permit to campaign" issued by communist terrorist group of the New People's Army (NPA).
For the KFRs, local thugs are allegedly into the city-based operation tasked with providing the group with additional accomplices as back-up, daily monitoring of the identified victim's routine and the area where the actual kidnapping is supposed to be best implemented.
While no specifics on the KFR gang members' identities were readily available for verification, an alert has been sent out to the intelligence community here.
This, as similar independent warning was relayed to the city's business groups, Filipino-Chinese traders and possible targets.
A police source when reached for comment said no new tips on KFR alleged presence here were received however all precautionary measures are in place and no solid leads that would entail increased police action.
For days now text messages were passed around bearing a stern warning.
"Flash Alert! Please be careful when you see a Honda Civic or any similar private car in particular. The occupants will try to stop you with a siren. Please do not stop because this is a new modus operandi of KFR!," the message went.
NPA extortion letters on the other hand were now confirmed to have reached candidates as far as the provinces of Aklan and Capiz. In Iloilo, beneficiaries of the same extortion attempts are mostly candidates in Iloilo towns with barangays known as rebel-strongholds or at least areas with NPA presence.
Two candidates in Capiz turned-over the NPA extortion letters to the Philippine Army as similar calls were made to other would-be victims in Iloilo.
The NPA demand is supposedly in the name of "revolutionary taxes" with an assurance of easy entry to particular barangays the rebels claim as "strongholds."