Police face blank wall in ‘strange’ tale of abduction
Left with nothing to go by except a woman’s claim that she was kidnapped, the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) admitted they were hard-pressed for answers in connection with the alleged abduction of an ABS-CBN network employee last week.
QCPD director Senior Supt. Richard Albano said that although Obdulia Ambion-Cruz, 52, was already in a stable condition, her memory remained spotty and could only offer a few recollections of the incident outside the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) office along Quezon Avenue, Quezon City on
March 18 .
Vendors in Baguio City reported to police that they found a disoriented Cruz wandering in the streets on the evening of March 22.
“We have yet to speak to the attending physician who initially examined her to determine exactly her condition at the time she was found,” he said, referring to doctors at the Notre Dame de Chartres Hospital in Baguio City.
The local police said Cruz could not talk straight and seemed to be in shock. She was wearing a pair of jeans, a blouse and a jacket but was given a change of clothes by the policemen.
Article continues after this advertisementA report from the Baguio hospital said Cruz had abrasions on her wrists and knees and had to be sedated.
Article continues after this advertisementAlbano said they were thinking of bringing Cruz back to Baguio City to enable them to retrace the route taken by her alleged abductors. “That way, we can backtrack and possibly get leads,” he explained.
“According to Cruz, she had just come from the BIR office and flagged down a cab. As she boarded the cab on the right rear passenger seat, a man wearing a ski mask got into the cab with her from the left side. The man, she said, tied her by the wrists and blindfolded her,” Albano told the Inquirer.
They drove around until the taxi stopped and she was transferred to another vehicle.
During the trip, she claimed one of her captors told her: “Ma’am, I only tried to get back at you because you did not let lend me money. Because of this, I was not able to renew my license.”
“Cruz said they never hurt her and never asked for ransom. It is strange that they went through all that trouble and expense to bring her to Baguio for nothing,” Albano added.
QCPD investigators have not found a single witness to the incident, although the BIR office area along Quezon Avenue where she was allegedly kidnapped, is crowded and thickly populated.
“Nobody saw anything. There are traffic enforcers there and also a lot of vendors. Still none of them saw anything out of the ordinary,” Albano told the Inquirer.
“We have to evaluate everything without relying solely on Cruz’s statement. We have to establish all the details of the reported kidnapping,” he said.
The security officer of ABS-CBN and Cruz’s husband, Lito, went to the QCPD on Wednesday to help fill in bits and pieces of the story, the police official added.
Around 9 a.m. on March 19, Cruz’s younger sister, ABS-CBN finance officer Angelita Ambion-Lara, reported that her sister had been missing since 10 a.m. the previous day, an hour after Cruz left her office to go to the BIR office.
Cruz turned up on March 22 in Baguio City where she claimed she was brought by her captors.
