Cops probe kidnappers’ ‘links’ in Calabarzon

INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

LUCENA CITY, Quezon, Philippines — Police in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) region are intensifying their operations to find links between the kidnappers, who abducted several Chinese nationals in Metro Manila, and possible cohorts in the provinces in the region where the victims have been abandoned or rescued.

Lt. Col. Chitadel Gaoiran, regional police public information chief, said all chiefs of local police stations in Calabarzon have been ordered to intensify their intelligence operations and the conduct of checkpoints in strategic areas in their respective areas of responsibility to counter the kidnapping groups.

“They were also tasked to identify any potential links [of the kidnappers] in the area,” Gaoiran told the Inquirer in a Viber message on Sunday.

Gaoiran said they believed the groups that kidnapped the Chinese nationals were separate and independent from each other.

The spate of abductions of Chinese nationals from the national capital who ended up in Calabarzon started last month, the latest of which was reported last Friday in Batangas province.

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Debt

In Batangas City, Liu Xin, 28, was found by residents at 3 a.m. on Friday roaming the streets in Barangay Ilijan after he was allegedly kidnapped earlier in Pasay City.

He was brought to the local police station where he told cops he was abducted by four fellow Chinese nationals for failing to pay a P10-million debt. The report did not provide details on how Xin accumulated the huge debt.

Police said Xin, a native of Liaoyang City in Liaoning province in China, refused to divulge the name of the company where he works and the details of his abduction.

The police brought him to Batangas Medical Center to be examined by doctors, after which he was turned over to the custody of the Philippine National Police Anti-Kidnapping Group.

On Oct. 29, nine persons, including six Chinese nationals, were also kidnapped in Ayala Alabang Village in Muntinlupa City. Three of the victims, all Filipino workers of one of the Chinese nationals, were later freed in Calauan, Laguna.

The three victims told police six armed men barged inside the house of their employer, Ceng Chi Liang, early morning of that day. The intruders tied and blindfolded Liang, the three Filipinos, and five other unidentified Chinese nationals.

The victims were then taken to Laguna where the Filipinos were released. But the six Chinese nationals remained missing.

On Oct. 18, two other male Chinese nationals who were allegedly kidnapped in Parañaque City were found in General Trias City, Cavite.

The victims said seven unidentified male Chinese and Filipinos kidnapped them on Oct. 16.

They said they were later brought to a house inside a subdivision where they stayed for a day, handcuffed and their mouths covered with packaging tape until they escaped.

Concerned citizens found and helped them seek police help.

READ: 4 Chinese men jailed after kidnapping a compatriot in Bohol

Ransom

On Nov. 3, police arrested three Chinese for the alleged kidnapping of a Chinese woman in Pasay City who managed to escape in Biñan City, Laguna.

The kidnap victim, identified only as “Shoroming,” 29, was abducted on Oct. 30. The suspects demanded P1 million and a BMW car from the victim for her freedom.

The victim was held captive in a rented apartment at a subdivision in Barangay Tubigan but managed to escape on Nov. 3 and sought help from subdivision residents.

The Biñan police conducted an operation that led to the arrest of the suspects and recovered a .22-caliber revolver loaded with five bullets and 35 bullets for a .45-caliber pistol.