Monday, October 13, 2008 Chinese-Filipino group on low kidnap case count
THE Chinese-Filipino community expressed relief over the declining number of kidnap-for-ransom cases, adding this paved the way for their renewed confidence in the sincerity of law enforcement to stem kidnapping and other heinous crime.
The Binondo-based Movement for the Restoration of Peace and Order (MRPO) said kidnapping has been a top peace and order concern of the Chinese-Filipino community composed mostly of businessmen.
"In our honest to goodness assessment, 2008 is a banner year in the government's anti-kidnapping campaign, with only nine kidnap-for-ransom cases reported since January," said William Ho, the group's chairman.
Ho also downplayed a recent false scare spread through text messages among members of the Chinese-Filipino community that kidnapping has been on the rise lately.
"In our Fil-Chi community, no one believes that text bomb because we know it's not true," Ho said in reaction to text messages that he believed was spread by some quarters who wanted to create a kidnapping scare.
The MRPO made its own independent verification of the allegations in the text scare messages and found all these to be false.
Senior Superintendent Leonardo Espina, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP)'s Police Anti-Crime and Emergency Response (Pacer), assured that all law enforcement measures are being undertaken to prevent kidnapping, mainly through manhunt and monitoring operations on known personalities involved in kidnapping.
"While we are yet to conclude that kidnapping is already a thing of the past, we can safely say that we have significant reversed the previous trend of kidnapping over the past nine years," Espina said.
Only nine kidnapping for ransom cases were monitored by the Pacer this year, which is not even half of 24 cases reported in 2007.
Kidnapping cases reached its peak in 2001 with 99 cases reported. Since 1999 to 2007, there was an average 54.6 kidnapping cases every year.
Pacer has arrested several kidnapping suspects involved in the nine kidnapping cases reported this year.
Among the most successful cases were the rescue of PNP executive Ramon Murillo and the arrest of 10 of his kidnappers; the rescue of Ka Kuen Chua in Novaliches that led to killing of one kidnapper and arrest of three others; and the arrest of two police officers, a former Cavite vice mayor and several other suspects involved in the kidnap-murder of a retired pilot last August.
"What is more important in all these solved cases is that our justice system has effectively established the certainty of punishment for kidnappers and other criminals," Espina said. (VR/Sunnex)
