3rd crime involving Malaysians
IMPORTED | Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos (second from right) presents Malaysian national Chan Yong Howe (third from left) and his Filipino accomplice Justine Alaraz (left) at a Camp Crame briefing. (Photo from the Public Information Office of the Philippine National Police)
MANILA, Philippines — As the Philippine National Police insisted that the crime wave reported by Filipinos on social media was nothing more than “crime hype,” authorities rescued another Malaysian who was victimized by a compatriot, the third reported incident involving Malaysians in less than a month.
Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos at a briefing at the PNP Camp Crame headquarters in Quezon City on Tuesday night presented Malaysian national Chan Yong Howe, 29, and his Filipino accomplice Justine Alaraz, 28, who were arrested for abducting a Malaysian woman (identity withheld for ethical reasons) and holding her for ransom.
The 35-year-old woman arrived in the Philippines on Sept. 9 to meet Chan who was supposed to be her boyfriend whom she met on a dating app, Abalos said.
But the woman was brought to Carmona, Cavite, and told to ask her family for 26,000 Malaysian ringgit, equivalent to around P300,000, in exchange for her freedom, the interior secretary added.
Instead, she got in touch with her Australian employer Jhon Basil Margarian in Singapore, who in turn reported the matter to the PNP, said Abalos without saying if the ransom was paid.
Article continues after this advertisementInterceptedBut on Sept. 12, Abalos said the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group and Aviation and Security Group received a report that the suspects were on their way to Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 along with the victim. They were intercepted at the airport security checkpoint.
Article continues after this advertisementThis is the third known criminal incident since the Tarlac provincial police arrested another Malaysian and his four Filipino cohorts who tried to abduct a Malaysian realty executive who lives in Bamban, Tarlac.
The police reported that the executive was about to drive away from his office in Bamban around 12:30 a.m. of Aug. 27 when his Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle was blocked by a Toyota Rush SUV and five men alighted from the Toyota Rush, forcibly opened and entered the victim’s vehicle, and tried to abduct him.
But an alert security guard, who witnessed the incident, immediately called the police and a mobile patrol was luckily in the area and they were able to foil the abduction.
Tarlac provincial police chief Col. Erwin Sanque said one of the suspects, identified as 33-year-old Malaysian Der Chiw Kiat, who resides at the Fontana Leisure Park in Clark Freeport Zone, is a nephew of the victim who was a resident of Bamban.
Only five days before the Tarlac incident, another Malaysian businessman (name withheld for ethical reasons) was robbed of more than P8.3 million in cash at the northbound elevated Skyway loop in Taguig City.
The businessman and his driver were on their way to Makati City from a casino in Parañaque City on Aug. 21 to deliver P8.1 million cash for the renovation of a building when they were blocked by a red Toyota Vios bearing a conduction sticker S1K754.
“The three armed men wore bonnets and fired at the hood of the victim’s car. They also broke the windshield and the driver’s side window using an ax,” the Southern Police District said in a statement.
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