Cabanatuan city: Dismissal proceedings have been initiated against an AWOL (absence without leave) police officer tagged in the kidnapping of a businessman in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija. In a statement Wednesday, acting Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Lt. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said administrative and criminal cases will be pursued "to their full extent" against the unnamed police officer. "The PNP has no room for people who think and act like the very criminals that we arrest," Nartatez said.

According to Philippines News Agency, authorities said the businessman was abducted at gunpoint from his warehouse in Barangay Kapitan Pepe. The suspects later demanded PHP5 million in ransom, but the police were able to rescue the victim in Barangay Bakod Bayan on Monday. The police arrested the 49-year-old AWOL police officer, tagged as the mastermind who is also the victim's cousin, in San Miguel, Bulacan. Follow-up operations led to the arrest of two other suspects in Cabanatuan City and Palayan City, Nueva Ecija.

Following the incident, Nartatez ordered a nationwide validation of AWOL police officers, including the accounting of service firearms and issued police identification cards. Meanwhile, Nartatez commended the Para±aque City Police Station for their swift action in arresting a robbery hold-up suspect who victimized a Japanese tourist. "The quick police response and the certainty of arrest of those who violate the law are best anti-crime measures," he said in a separate statement.

The suspect, Ariel Alido, 49, was apprehended after allegedly attacking and robbing a 62-year-old Japanese who sustained injuries during the attack that occurred along Cavitex Access Road in Barangay San Dionisio, Para±aque City on Sunday.