2 of 4 Manobo hostage-takers are mere teens

MANILA, Philippines—Two of the four Manobo tribesmen, who seized a group of school officials and residents in Prosperidad town in Agusan del Sur province last Friday, were teenagers who also took part in a similar hostage-taking incident in 2009, a police official said Thursday.

Kin-kin Perez, 18, and Rey Joy Brital, 17, were part of the group of tribal leader Ondo Perez that abducted 79 residents in Prosperidad’s Barangay Maitum in December 2009, according to Agusan del Sur police chief Senior Superintendent Jerome Baxinella.

According to Baxinella, Kin-kin, also known as Ken-ken, and Brital were arrested along with Ondo Perez and 11 others after they freed their hostages and surrendered their firearms.

The hostage-takers then demanded that the criminal case they were facing be transferred to the tribal court, claiming that the case was an off-shoot of a clan war.

Instead of being detained, Kin-kin and Brital were turned over to the local social welfare office as they were still minors.

“We could not file cases against them because they were minors at the time. That’s the law. What we did was to just refer them to the social welfare office for counseling and custody,” Baxinella told reporters.

Kin-kin and Brital were again involved in last week’s hostage-taking that ended on Wednesday. The two, along with Allan Perez and a certain Dodong Sabang, seized 16 officials, students and residents and held them for five days in a remote forest, demanding the release of the same Ondo Perez involved in the December 2009 abductions.

The group later released three of the hostages in exchange for water and food supplies. They then abandoned the 12 remaining captives on Wednesday morning.

Baxinella said Kin-kin, a younger brother of Ondo Perez, stood as the group’s leader and spoke with the representatives of the local crisis management committee that negotiated for the release of the hostages.

“Apparently, Kin-kin enjoyed the trust of Ondo and other members of the clan,” he said. (report from Marlon Ramos/Philippine Daily Inquirer)