A kidnapping story

A Chinese-Filipino businessman friend of mine whom I will not identify at the moment was abducted on Monday night by four armed men from his warehouse in Meycauayan, Bulacan.

He was released yesterday after his family paid a total of P1.6 million to his kidnappers.

If it were not for Sen. Panfilo Lacson, former Philippine National Police chief, the businessman would still be in the hands of his kidnappers.

You know who kidnapped him?

Members of the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG)!

One of his kidnappers was identified as a CIDG official in Region 3.

This columnist tried but failed to get details from police officials privy to the case.

Chief Supt. Roel Obusan, CIDG chief, could not be reached reportedly because he was at Camp Crame in connection with the PNP Foundation Day celebration.

Senior Supt. Romeo Caramat, Bulacan PNP director, gave the same reason to this columnist when I reached him on his cell phone.

This much I know from bits of information I’ve pieced together.

The businessman, a trader, was at his warehouse when four men lugging M-16 rifles and a .45-caliber pistol barged in.

They were in a white Delica van which only had one license plate, in the front, which read “CIDG.”

The men said they were from the special business concerns unit of the CIDG—which has long been dissolved—and had an arrest warrant for the trader.

When the trader asked to be shown the warrant, the armed hoods manhandled him; one even fired his pistol into the air.

I learned about the abduction minutes after when one of the trader’s employees called me up between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Monday.

The next morning, the businessman’s family received a call from the kidnappers, who told them to bring P1 million to a designated place. They later agreed on an initial payment of P700,000.

The kidnappers made another demand, asking for P1.3 million more, but the family haggled and the amount went down to P900,000.

The morning after, Senator Lacson, who’s also a friend of the trader, went to Camp Crame and sought the help of the CIDG and the Anti-Kidnapping Group.

According to a congressman, another friend of the trader, Lacson was on top of the situation from then on.

Before Lacson stepped in, the congressman said that people at the CIDG headquarters in Camp Crame ignored him when he inquired about the kidnapping.

When Lacson was informed about the second ransom payment of P900,000, he insisted that the bills be sprayed with invisible ultraviolet powder by CIDG operatives disguised as employees of the trader.

And what do you know? The ransom was paid but the CIDG agents said the kidnappers got away!

Goodness gracious, how could the kidnappers have gotten away unless they were made to escape!

I informed the President yesterday about the kidnapping through his close aide, Bong Go.