4 Chinese Pogo workers linked to kidnapping case

MANILA, Philippines — The police have identified the four Chinese suspects in the kidnapping of a Chinese Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) worker in Makati City on Dec. 9.

Maj. Gideon Ines Jr., chief of the Makati police investigation section, however, said on Sunday that the one of the suspects had already left the country.

A check with the Bureau of Immigration showed that Guo Wanshun flew back to China on Dec. 12, three days after the abduction of Zhou Mei on Paseo de Roxas.

The other suspects — Song Xifei, Guo Ebin and Zhang Xipeng — remain in the country although they remain at large.

According to the police, they were looking at the possibility that the kidnapping of the 28-year-old Zhou was work-related.

Ines said that just like the victim, the four suspects were also Pogo workers. Investigators, however, have yet to determine whether they worked for the same employer.

Ines added that their informants had said that Zhou could have taken sensitive data from her employer — a Pogo service provider firm based in Makati City — who wanted to retrieve it.

Tip from informant

Investigators were able to determine the identities of the four suspects after a Chinese national, whom the police did not identify for security reasons, went to the Makati police station to say that he was the former owner of the van used in the kidnapping.

“He came to us voluntarily on Friday so he could clear his name, after his Chinese friends sent him messages that it was his car that was used in the kidnapping,” Ines said.

Police earlier reported that the van was a Kia Carnival with a fake license plate. It turned out, however, that the vehicle was a Chrysler Town and Country minivan, which the Chinese informant said he sold to Guo Wanshun in October for P600,000.

He also gave the police Guo’s address at a condominium in Pasay City. But when the police went to the unit rented by Guo, no one was there.

Ines noted that the suspects had “left in a hurry” because the unit was “a mess” when they arrived. Found at the scene were Guo Wanshun’s expired passport, the other suspects’ ID cards and a pair of handcuffs.

Acting on a tip about another house in Multinational Village in Parañaque City supposedly being rented by the suspects, the police went to the house but found no one.

They were, however, able to recover a contract lease between Guo Wanshun and the house owner. It showed the suspects had been staying there since October.

Residents told probers they saw four Chinese men “manhandling” a Chinese-looking woman being brought out of a van sometime last week.

Earlier, the Makati police chief, Col. Rogelio Simon, cleared Zhou’s husband, Chen Tangbin, of any participation in her kidnapping.

Simon said the unsigned deed of sale found at the crime scene was “not related” to the case, with the Filipino national who drafted the document confirming to the police that he gave it to Zhou hours before she was abducted.

The police also downplayed the kidnap-for-ransom angle, noting that Chen had no means of paying for Zhou’s release since he was jobless.

Chen previously told investigators that he was able to talk to Zhou hours after she was abducted, claiming that her kidnappers were asking P60 million for her release.

The police had tagged Chen as a person of interest in his wife’s disappearance, saying he was “suspiciously silent” when asked who might be behind the kidnapping.

His belated reporting of her abduction also raised doubts among investigators. They said that when they asked Chen why he failed to immediately ask them for help, he replied that he was busy.