Philippine government troops arrested one of the country's most wanted kidnappers who was involved in the abduction of Italian priest Giuseppi Piarantoni and four Chinese engineers in the southern islands four years ago, the military said Wednesday.

The suspect, identified as Norham Amil alias Commander Ramsie, has been included in the National-Kidnapping Task Force's list of most wanted kidnappers with a 500,000 million peso bounty, the military said in a statement.

Special forces of the government troops intercepted Amil, a member of the notorious Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom syndicate, at a checkpoint in Leon Postigo in Zamboanga del Norte on Tuesday night, and put him in a tactical interrogation.

Amil, who was reportedly a former commander of the Muslim rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front, was suspected of being involved in a number of kidnapping incidents, including Pierantoni 's abduction in Zamboanga de Sur in October 2001.

Pierantoni was officiating a mass in the town of Dimataling when fully armed Pentagon bandits seized him, and was released months later after alleged payment of an unknown amount of ransom.

Amil was also implicated in the kidnapping of four Chinese engineers and a Filipino guide in Carmen town, North Cotabato, in May 2001, and killed two of them.

Source: Xinhua