Not ‘kidnap-me,’ wife of missing Antique bizman insists
The wife of missing businessman James Ardaña finally broke her silence and granted an interview with a local reporter in the Province of Antique.
And it was to be a tearful interview too with the businessman’s wife, Gloria, addressing issues hounding her husband’s disappearance.
The wife spoke with Paul Petinglay, Bombo Radyo Iloilo correspondent and material witness to the incident.
To recall, it was Petinglay who called authorities for help after stopping to help a hogtied man later identified as the brother of James Ardaña.
Gloria insisted that her husband was kidnapped as she denied a “kidnap-me” ploy believed to have been staged here.
The 51 year-old businessman as reported to police was dragged at gunpoint by armed men and remains missing almost a month this Saturday.
Petinglay told The News Today (TNT) that the interview with Gloria was pre-arranged by the family and conducted in the Ardaña residence in Sibalom, Antique.
Gloria tearfully recounted details leading to the disappearance of her husband. She confirmed having received a text message five days after the supposed kidnapping. The text, she said, contained a message demanding P15 million as ransom money. Gloria said she turned over to authorities the cellular phone bearing the message.
Meantime, yet another call was received last Tuesday this time bearing a disturbing message. The family, Gloria said, was told to expect a package anytime. No further details were given with Gloria trying to get hold of the caller but to no avail.
She told Petinglay that the cellular phone used by the yet to be identified caller was left open yet calls or text messages remained unanswered.
She recalled though talking to a male caller in halting-Tagalog.
“Ibalik niyo siya sa amon….gapakitluoy ako….gusto gid namon sang iya kabataan mabal-an ang iya sitwasyon,” Gloria in her first-ever public appeal to her husband’s captors went.
The “kidnap-me” theory came up and heightened following the rape complaint faced by James. Talks abound in Antique that the kidnapping was the businessman’s way out of the rape charge up for resolution.
A kidnapping suspect brought in by police for questioning was eventually released for lack of any solid evidence linking him to the incident.
Tips rounded up by probers also gathered numerous purported sightings of the businessman alongside information from locals bolstering the “kidnap-me” theory.
Even the police hierarchy has yet to name any suspects nor come up with development supporting the kidnapping as reported.