17 foreigners kidnapped in RP last year — Cayetano

Seventeen foreigners, three of them Americans, were kidnapped in the country last year and 18 others were killed while in captivity or during a robbery.

Quoting a national police report, Sen. Renato Cayetano said yesterday nine of the foreigners were seized in Mindanao and five of the victims were killed by their kidnappers.

"Kidnapped were three American tourists, three Chinese men, two Singaporean traders, two South Korean businessmen, two Taiwanese visitors, a Greek business executive, a British oceanographer, a Canadian married to a Filipino, a Hong Kong labor recruiter, and an Italian priest," he said.

Cayetano, chairman of the Senate committee on energy, said the slain kidnap victims were Taiwanese Chang Ming-yen, 37, whose body was found in Laurel, Batangas in January; Greek shipping executive Felippo Orfanos, 62, who was found dead in Morong, Rizal in February; and Chinese engineers Zhang Zhong Quiang and Wang Shung Li, who were killed in Matan, North Cotabato in June.

Cayetano said the highly publicized kidnappings have dampened government efforts to attract much-needed foreign investors and tourists.

Cayetano said American Guillermo Sobero was the fifth kidnap victim to be killed after the Abu Sayyaf bandits had beheaded him and dumped his body in the jungles of Basilan.

Troops later found Sobero’s body which was later sent to Honolulu, Hawaii, where it was identified by forensic experts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Cayetano said the fate of Italian Catholic priest Fr. Giuseppi Pierantoni, 44, who was snatched in Zamboanga del Norte last October, has remained unknown.

Cayetano said Singaporean Roger Yao, 43, was kidnapped in Makati City and released after his wife paid a ranson of P8.3 million, without the government knowing about it.

Only after Yao returned to Singapore, and narrated to media his sad experience in the Philippines, did the government come to know that a kidnapping had taken place, he added.

Cayetano said Irish Catholic missionary Rufus Halley, 57, was shot dead in Malabang, Lanao del Sur, when he tried to fight off suspected kidnappers, while Frenchman Marc Raoul Louvel, 61, was murdered in Lapu-Lapu City.

Taiwanese executive Ko Liang Wang, 44, was killed in Parañaque City, and Japanese businessman Masayuki Kuwabara, 72, was shot dead in Cebu City, he added.

Cayetano said other homicide victims were: John Robert Wallworth, 56, in San Marcelino in Zambales; Chinese engineer Wang Gui Lin, 37, in San Leonardo, Nueva Ecija; and South Korean businessman Sung Koan, in San Pablo City in Laguna. — Aurea Calica, Efren Danao