THE PHILIPPINES. DEATH FOR 4 IN BUSINESSWOMAN'S ABDUCTION

four out of 14 people accused of abducting Chinese-Filipino businesswoman Michelle Siu Ragos were sentenced to death, seven others were sentenced to life, while three were acquitted, according to a decision by Judge Bonifacio Sanz Maceda of the Las Piñas City Regional Trial Court Branch 275, the Philippines.
Those condemned to death were Bayan Abbas Adil, alias Jordan Adel, Jimmy Alunan, Alex Daliano and Omar Kamir after they were found guilty of masterminding the kidnapping and of illegal detention for ransom.
Rowena Amal Rajid, Teng Usman, Muslimen Wahab, Ali Matoc, Rocky Mocalam, Nhokie Mohamad and Brahim Lidasan were given the penalty of Reclusion Perpetua, or life imprisonment, for acting as accomplices in the kidnapping.
Ragos, a 37-year-old supervisor of an electric lighting factory in Mapulang Lupa, Valenzuela City, was taken at gunpoint from her office on the evening of October 30, 1998.
The businesswoman was detained in two safehouses in Las Piñas City for eight days until she was rescued by agents of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force then headed by Panfilo Lacson, now a senator.
Her kidnappers had asked for a P30 million ransom, but her family paid the gang P4.83 million.
During the course of the trial, the prosecution witnesses, including Ragos and state witness Tadioden Bauting, positively identified all 14 accused as the perpetrators of the crime. Bauting was a security guard at Ragos' factory.