Cops hot on trail of Valenzuela food heiress’ kidnappers

Agents of the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (NAKTAF) are hunting down the kidnappers who snatched the only daughter of a couple that owns one of the country’s top processed-meat companies.

Dermatologist Charmaine Ong, 30, managed to escape last Saturday, barely two days after she was kidnapped outside her clinic in Valenzuela City.

Police refused to confirm or deny reports that they have identified the kidnappers to avoid jeopardizing the operation. But police sources said they believe the kidnappers operate in Pampanga and Pangasinan provinces. "They are heavily armed and daring," they said.

Investigators said Ong’s family still refused to cooperate with them despite assurances of police protection, presumably out of fear that the kidnappers might strike again.

NAKTAF agents are apprehensive that the Ong family’s refusal to cooperate might derail efforts to bring the kidnappers to justice.

Ong’s family have refused to give details on her escape.

Police said Ong was in "a state of shock" when her father, accompanied by police officers, came to fetch her at a Catholic church in San Fernando, Pampanga, where she sought help.

Ong is the only daughter of Ateneo biology professor Jose Ong and Corazon Dayro-Ong, a former dietitian at Manila Central University. They own Food Sphere Inc., the company that produces processed meat products under the CDO brand.

Last Saturday, Ong called her family in Manila around 10:30 a.m. to inform them that she had escaped from her abductors. But she refused to give her exact location, fearing that their residence phone had been tapped by the kidnappers.

After calling her family, Ong kept on walking and sought refuge at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish Church, according to Central Luzon police sources.

Ong was abducted last Thursday at around 7:15 p.m. after she, her secretary and her driver, Mateo Cahilig, came out of her dermatology clinic in Marulas, Valenzuela City.

Three armed men seized Ong at gunpoint as she was about to board her car. Cahilig fought with the kidnappers but was shot in the stomach. He is out of danger.

The kidnappers also seized company guard Jaime Untoy, who was on his way home when the kidnapping occurred.

Untoy was later found handcuffed to the steering wheel of Ong’s car, which was abandoned inside University Hills Subdivision in Caloocan City.

Ong’s secretary escaped during the kidnapping and phoned Ong’s parents and the police.

Initial police statements said authorities are investigating the possibility that the abduction might be linked to a labor dispute at Food Sphere.