Kidnapping cases of Chinese-Filipinos on rise anew

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 21, 2003

Kidnapping cases of Chinese-Filipinos on rise anew

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The kidnapping cases of the Chinese-Filipinos in Manila have been on the rise and the situation deteriorated as the Chinese-Filipino community condemned the criminal act and called for strengthened crackdown efforts.

A 10-year-old Chinese-Filipino girl was kidnapped while on her way to school by car along a highway in Manila Friday morning, just days after Chinese-Filipina Betti Sy, a local executive officer of the Coca-Cola Export, Inc., was killed by her abductors and was dumped along a road in a district in Manila on Tuesday.

In the latest kidnapping incident, the driver and the nanny of the girl were shot and wounded by the kidnapping suspects and then brought to a nearby hospital. The suspects immediately fled the scene with the victim.

Besides, another Chinese-Filipino was kidnapped in Manila's Chinatown Thursday, the Manila Standard daily Friday quoted sources in the Philippine law enforcement community as saying, and the police anti-crime emergency is now handling the case.

As the kidnapping situation against the Chinese-Filipinos deteriorated, the leading Chinese-Filipino Commercial Chambers called for an urgent meeting of its diplomacy and security team Thursday, sternly condemning the kidnapping and killing of Betti Sy and urging the Philippine government to take more steps and improve the security situation.

Meanwhile, Teresita Ang-See, head of the Citizens Action against Crime, also called for the government to do more to crack down on the kidnappers, saying "for a change, we hope the next bodies to be recovered will be those of the kidnappers."

Ang-See was reacting to the death of the 32-year-old Sy, which was described as "the worst abduction case" this year only because every few kidnappings ended with the victims being killed.

The death of Sy has reopened a festering wound in the Chinese-Filipino community who have become the most common targets of kidnap-for-ransom syndicates.

The Philippine National Police said a total of 83 kidnapping cases had been reported as of last month, a 31.7-percent rise in the number for the same period last year.

Ang-See, however, said the correct figure was much higher: 110 cases involving 165 victims. And from September to October, she added, kidnappings were averaging one per day. The situation is the worst in a decade, she concluded.

On the other hand, the Philippine authorities have arrested three suspects allegedly involved in the Sy kidnapping case and on Thursday killed top kidnap group leader Roberto Yap, arresting three of his cohorts during an encounter in the northern Philippine province of Bataan.

However, Angelo Reyes, Anti-Kidnapping Task Force chief, said Yap's group was not involved in the abduction of Sy.

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