Police: Gold trader seized in Maguindanao found dead

A Manila-based gold-and-antique trader who was reported kidnapped was found dead Friday afternoon in Cotabato City, a police report said Saturday. A Marine unit, together with Cotabato City police, retrieved the body of Dominador Mendoza Berdin from Kinagatan River. Berdin, 53, was gold, antique and jewelry trader from Mandaluyong City. Supt. Marcelo Pintac, director of the Maguindanao Provincial Police Office, said Berdin’s body bore three gunshot wounds, one in the neck and two in the abdomen. Berdin was abducted last Thursday by a group of armed men while he was talking to a businessman at the Hillside Resort Hotel in Datu Odin town in Maguindanao. A certain Modz was believed behind the abduction and killing of the victim, according to Inspector Lendsy Sinsuat, chief of the Datu Odin municipal police. He said, the victim had been told Modz has antique jewelry to sell. Hours after Berdin’s abduction, cops nabbed two of the kidnappers identified as Norodin Malik and Ryan Usman. The suspects are still in the custody of Maguindanao Provincial Police headquarters. Charges would be filed against them on Monday, police said. — Malu Cadeliña Manar /LBG, GMA News