Kidnapped Italian pizzeria owner freed

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—Italian pizza restaurant owner Rolando del Torchio had been freed by his captors, the police confirmed on Friday.

But Chief Supt. Miguel Antonio, the regional police director of Western Mindanao, said the details of del Torchio’s release remain scant, including the location and time.

A reliable source told the Inquirer that del Torchio, who was kidnapped in Dipolog City on Oct. 7, 2015 was released on Friday after his family paid P29 million in ransom.

Del Torchio, 53, a former missionary priest, was taken at gunpoint by four armed men who entered his pizzeria in Dipolog City, posing as customers. He was dragged into a getaway van.

Del Torchio was previously targeted by kidnappers when he spent five years in Sibuco town, south of Dipolog. He was a missionary priest with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions there in the 1990s before he left the priesthood.