House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan on Wednesday urged the Philippine National Police (PNP) to stem the rash of kidnap for ransom incidents before they become a bigger threat to Metro Manila’s peace and order situation.
“We want these kidnapping gangs preying on the Filipino-Chinese community stamped out right away. We do not want their nefarious activities to mutate into a larger threat,” Libanan, nominee of 4Ps party-list group, said.
“This is clearly a law enforcement problem. The only reason these kidnappers are getting bolder is because they have not been apprehended, and they have not been put behind bars,” Libanan stressed.
Libanan made the statement following a news conference Wednesday wherein Philippine Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (PCCCII officials appealed for the government’s help against kidnapping syndicates whom they said have been targeting the Filipino-Chinese community.
PNP officer-in-charge Lt. Gen. Jose Chiquito Malayo and Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) Undersecretary Agapito Guanlao were also present during the news conference at the House of Representatives.
PCCCII secretary-general Bengsum Ko said most of the kidnappings were reported in the National Capital Region (NCR), notably in the cities of Pasay, Parañaque, Makati and Taguig.
During the press briefing, Ko read a letter from PCCCII president Lugene Ang, stating that they have received 56 reports of kidnapping incidents over the past 10 days alone, excluding unreported cases.
“Recent disturbing events create a state of fear and uneasiness among the Filipino-Chinese community. This is because of the recent rampant kidnapping cases both in Metro Manila and some parts of Luzon,” Ang said in his letter addressed to Congress and coursed through Libanan.
“These kidnappers are worse than animals. They use torture and intimidation, rape women and send the videos to the victim’s relatives demanding huge sums of money. In some cases, victims were even sold to other kidnapping groups,” Ang said.
Ang also said the kidnappings “threaten not only the safety of our citizens but also normal business activities.”
He appealed to Congress and law enforcement agencies to “take a more active role and act swiftly to suppress these criminals and eradicate these kidnapping syndicates.”
Ang said “no bail should be granted” to kidnappers.
“And the truth of the matter is that these kidnappers are foreigners, Chinese for that matter, so we should never allow these foreign criminal syndicates to do whatever they want in our country,” Ang said.
Malayo gave assurance of Camp Crame’s prompt action on all the information that the PCCCII had about kidnapping incidents that were apparently never reported to the police.
Only four kidnapping cases were reported to the police, Malayo said.
