LINGAYEN—The family of a barangay chairman in San Fabian, who was kidnapped in March this year and is still missing, branded as malicious rumors spread around by some people that their kin was seen in Las Vegas, Nevada USA recently.

Provincial Board Member Liberato Villegas said although he may be happy to hear that his younger brother Roland, Barangay Captain of Anonang, San Fabian is alive, he suspects the rumor as another of those tricks depicting that the Villegas family is hiding Roland.

Several other rumors circulated before, one of them being that Roland was returned by the kidnappers to his home after beating him black and blue, turning him into almost in a coma.

This turned out to be false as Roland’s whereabouts is still unknown.

Board Member Villegas told newsmen after their regular session last Monday that it pains his family to hear the ugly rumor being circulated around that his brother is in the U.S.

He said their mother is now ill as she missed Roland very much.

“How can he be in Las Vegas when it was verified that there is no record in the Bureau of Immigration that Roland ever go out of the country?” he asked rhetorically.

The younger Villegas, a controversial figure has been missing since he was reportedly flagged down by armed men while on board his car in barangay Bolasi, San Fabian while visiting a beach resort he was then constructing.

His car was abandoned in a barangay near the La Union border.
The board member suspects that his brother was kidnapped not necessarily for ransom purposes but for personal reason which he, however, refused to elaborate.