PNP eyes Chinese desks

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police is mulling the creation of Chinese desks to stop the rising trend of crimes involving Chinese nationals in the country.

At a press briefing on Monday in Camp Crame, PNP chief Police Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa said that technical working groups from both the Philippine and Chinese governments should be created.

The technical working groups need to “really study” how, why and when crimes involving Chinese nationals are committed as well as the frequency of these incidents.

Apart from establishing Chinese desks, cultural and language training may also be conducted “so we might understand better why they are doing [crimes] and how they are going to do it.”

In the meantime, China has a police attache in the Philippines with whom the PNP can coordinate, Gamboa said.

He noted that there had been specialized schooling and visits initiated by the Chinese government, including sending PNP personnel to China, “so that we understand more their culture and how their syndicates do their thing in China, probably the same thing they do here in the Philippines.”

The PNP has noted a rising trend in kidnapping incidents in the country in which the suspects and victims are both Chinese following a surge in Philippine offshore gaming operations.

In Makati City, the police have placed under arrest four Chinese nationals accused of trying to abduct a Filipino woman on Friday.

The suspects were identified as Sun Xiao Hui, 22; Zhi Lin; 25; Chen Sujo, 26; and Shi Jun Yi, 28.Their alleged victim, 18-year-old Mara (not her real name), was waiting for a taxi cab in front of her house on Einstein Street when two Filipinos, who later escaped, forced her at gunpoint to come with them. They tried to make her get into a parked van where the suspects were waiting but she fled and sought help from watchmen. The police said on Monday that Mara turned out to be a “fixer” for foreigners in need of papers required by the Bureau of Immigration. The suspects were her clients and had even referred other Chinese nationals to her. Police Maj. Gideon Ines, Makati police chief of investigation, said that the victim had claimed she was ordered abducted for her refusal to charge more for her services, with the extra money going to the suspects. The Chinese men, on the other hand, said that Mara and her boyfriend owed them P350,000 for undelivered transactions. The suspects remain in detention at the Makati police station on charges of attempted kidnapping. —WITH A REPORT FROM DEXTER CABALZA INQ