Two Korean crime cases in a week

They are Cebu’s number one tourist market, and the country’s as well, so it’s disturbing to learn of Koreans victimizing their own countrymen in Cebu.

After a Korean businessman was kidnapped in Cebu City last week for allegedly failing to settle a P4 million debt, two other Korean businessmen barely managed to survive an ambush outside their subdivision in Lapu-Lapu City.

This time, police said the likely motive was a rejected business proposal. The victims identified as Lee Dong Gun and Jung Ha Bok have since requested for protection and the regional police office said they will assign them security escorts.

While the kidnapping occurred in Cebu City and the ambush happened in Lapu-Lapu City, the two incidents occurred days apart and can’t be downplayed as isolated cases as Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza said.

Both crimes involved conflicts involving large cash outlays, debts incurred in casino gambling and in the other case, an alleged extortion attempt to press new Korean investors to accept the “security” services of a 10-year Korean resident who boasted of well-placed connections in government.

Is it a coincidence that both cases involved Koreans engaged in money lending services or 5-6 arrangements with heavy casino gamblers in Cebu?

Is it also a coincidence that the henchmen who pulled off both operations were armed local boys who pretended to be police officers?

In the Oct. 24 kidnapping, the men who abducted Jun Hyung Chung and his girlfriend from their apartment in Cebu City showed up in black jackets marked PNP, used handcuffs and introduced themselves as members of the Criminal Investigation Detection Group (CIDG).

One of the arrested suspects was identified as a bodyguard of a retired military intelligence officer, who, it turns out has a nifty business lending money to casino players.

In the Oct. 31 foiled car ambush of two Korean businessmen in Mactan, the lookout whom Lapu-Lapu police are set to charge is a “personality” known to them.

He carries a licensed gun and describes himself as an ex-cop. Before he hung around with the alleged Korean mastermind, who lends money to casino gamblers, he kept company doing errands for a Lapu-Lapu official.

So who says these are isolated, one-off conflicts?

The parties point to entrenched relationships with the shady side of law enforcement and have nothing to do with wholeshome tourism, certainly not the kind Cebu needs.

Nothing less than swift, decisive arrests and prosectuion of the perpetrators – Korean or Cebuano – would send a strong message that violence and lawlessness ce will not be tolerated.