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THE
National Police antikidnapping group on Sunday reported
that only one kidnapping incident was reported during
the first three months of the year.
The report prompted Director General
Avelino Razon Jr., National Police chief, to order the
force, particularly its antikidnapping group, the Police
Anticrime and Emergency Response (Pacer) unit, to end
kidnapping cases in the country by hunting all the
remaining kidnap suspects.
Razon issued the order following a
report from Senior Supt. Leonardo Espina, Pacer
commander, that kidnapping cases in the country is on
the downtrend with only a single case reported for the
first three months of the current year.
“We must seize the opportunity now that
we are enjoying the full support of the community in
accounting for all wanted kidnapping suspects before
they can regroup or reorganize,” Razon said.
He ordered Pacer to sustain the momentum
of the series of successful antikidnapping operations
last year and during the first quarter of 2008.
Espina said the lone kidnapping case
that was reported during the past three months has
already been solved with the arrest of the suspect and
the safe rescue of the victim, who is the son of a
hardware store owner.
“We want to ensure that this favorable
trend will continue for the rest of the year through
intensified police operations, as well as proactive
prevention measures that we are implementing in
cooperation with the community and the particular
sectors that we consider as vulnerable targets,” Espina
said.
The Pacer arrested five most- wanted
kidnapping suspects this year—Taupin Annahalul, who
carried a reward of P1 million; Manny Escobar, P250,000;
and Indians Darshun Shandu and Surinder Singh, both
masterminds of the kidnapping of their fellow Indians in
Central Luzon, and Ronie Dillung, wanted in Basilan for
kidnapping and murder.
Last year Pacer arrested the 14
most-wanted kidnapping suspects on its list.
Meanwhile, Espina also dismissed the
kidnapping scare being spread through text messages by
still unknown individuals who claimed that “kidnapping
is rampant again,” and that it is being perpetrated by a
Chinese gang.
“The text scare is patently a hoax, no
such kidnapping of a cell-phone trader ever occurred,
much more the supposed P200-million bank transfer
pay-off. This kind of tale can happen only in the
movies,” Espina said.
He said Pacer is now coordinating with
other police and law-enforcement agencies to possibly
trace the authors of the text scare. |
