Philippines: April 4, 2002

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Police raided homes where they had observed members of kidnapping gangs entering and leaving. To their surprise, they discovered that one of the homes was that of the head MILF peace negotiator. It was long felt that most of the kidnappings by MILF members were the work of rogue groups. But apparently mainline MILF are not immune to the attraction of kidnapping money. Meanwhile, the government is enacting new bank regulations to make it easier to track kidnappers money (which, in large amounts, usually ends up in local bank accounts.) The new new regulations would force the banks to report suspicious activity, among other things.