Valenzuela food heiress kidnapped

The only daughter of the owners of one of the country’s top processed-meat companies was abducted Thursday night by three armed men as she was leaving her office in Valenzuela City, police said yesterday.

Valenzuela City police chief Senior Superintendent Leopoldo Urena identified the victim as dermatologist Charmaine Ong, 30, scion of the owners of Food Sphere Inc., the company that produces CDO Food Products.

Urena said Ong’s driver, Mateo Cahilig, was shot and wounded in the stomach by one of the kidnappers as he tried to fight them. He is now out of danger.

A company guard, Jaime Untoy, who was taken with Ong was later found unharmed, chained to the car’s steering wheel. Untoy was already off-duty and was on his way home when the kidnapping took place.

CDO puts out more than 300 products, including corned beef, burger patties and ham. Food Sphere is owned by Corazon Dayro-Ong, a former dietitian at the Manila Central University, and Ateneo de Manila University biology professor Jose Ong.

Police are investigating the possibility that the kidnapping might be related to an ongoing labor dispute in Food Sphere as no ransom has yet been demanded by the still-unidentified abductors.

Initial police investigation showed Ong was seized at about 7:15 p.m. after she, her secretary and Cahilig came out of her skin clinic at the CDO Building in BBB, Valenzuela.

Three armed men appeared and suddenly grabbed Ong at gun point as she was about to board her green Mitsubishi Galant with license plates TCS-851, police said.

Cahilig tried to grab the gun of one of the men, but was shot. The secretary, who requested not to be identified, escaped during the commotion and eventually telephoned Ong’s parents and the police for assistance.

Untoy who was in the vicinity of the abduction site was grabbed by one of the men and shoved inside a car that sped toward Caloocan City.

Untoy was quoted as saying that he overheard the men telling Ong, "Pera, pera lang (It is only about money)!" He also was quoted as saying that two of the three men and Ong transferred to a red car with license plates either TRE 218 or 219 waiting for their arrival at the University Hills Subdivision and that the third man handcuffed him to the steering wheel of Ong’s car and boarded a Nissan Patrol van which arrived moments later.

Police found Untoy inside Ong’s car abandoned along London Tech at the University Hills Subdivision in Caloocan City.

Urena said they have pinpointed suspects who are now being pursued. Three witnesses had provided information that enabled authorities to come up with a cartographic sketch of one of the three suspects who was described as between 40-45 years old, medium-built, with brown complexion and short hair.

Police recovered from the scene several caliber .45 shells, while Caloocan City police turned over yesterday Ong’s car to Valenzuela authorities. – With Pete Laude