Fresh kidnaps a blow - GMA

The Arroyo administration admitted yesterday that a fresh wave of kidnappings last week has set back the government’s campaign against organized crime.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye made the admission as President Arroyo appealed to journalists anew to impose a news blackout on unsolved kidnapping cases to avoid compromising ongoing police operations and endangering the victims’ lives.

Malacañang issued the statements as the Philippine National Police (PNP) confirmed the kidnapping on Saturday of businesswoman Gina So in Barangay Carmen in Rosales, Pangasinan.

Over the past week, armed men snatched the two children of Negros Occidental Rep. Julio Ledesma IV, four Mindanao State University professors in Marawi City and a Filipino-American teenager in Cagayan de Oro City.

"It’s a setback to our campaign," Bunye admitted in a television interview, but stressed that the President "remains resolute to go after the kidnap-for-ransom syndicates."

The President herself again appealed to media "stop feasting" on unsolved kidnapping cases.

"I’d like to take the opportunity in reiterating the appeal of the anti- crime non-government organizations to stop feasting on the live cases because it endangers the lives of the victims," the President said at Camp Crame after she paraded before media arrested members of another crime gang.

Mrs. Arroyo noted that in the kidnapping case of four-year-old Patricia Chung, media embargoed stories about the abduction although police officials continued to leak information to media.

Meanwhile, acting Pangasinan police director Senior Superintendent Dominador Ventura pledged to arrest So’s abductors.

Ventura told The STAR in a phone interview that So, 42, was abducted by four armed men inside the family-owned Golden Lumber store at the foot of Carmen Bridge.

So, branch manager of the agricultural supply firm Soil Tech, is the wife of businessman Rene So, who is associated with tycoon Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco and supposedly occupies a key position in San Miguel Corp.

The So couple own the Toyota dealership in Dagupan City and several other establishments in Pangasinan.

Ventura said So was abducted by four men who covered their faces with handkerchiefs and barged into the lumber store at around 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

So’s seven helpers couldn’t resist the five armed men who dragged So into a blue Toyota Corolla with license plates PMU-699, which was backed up by a white car, Ventura said.

He said a traffic policeman is usually stationed at the crossroads near the lumber store but the policeman had just gotten off duty 30 minutes before the kidnapping was pulled off.

Ventura said police could have mounted road blocks but the kidnapping was reported to the nearby police detachment only 30 minutes after the incident by a tricycle driver.

Officials of Barangay Guilig in Rosales said they saw the getaway vehicle when one of the suspects went out of the car to urinate and change the car’s license plate.

Ventura denied earlier reports that the kidnappers had gotten in touch with the victims’ husband and asked for P30 million in ransom.

He said the kidnappers have not yet made any ransom demand and the police are also looking into the possibility that the kidnapping may be related to a robbery that earlier occurred at the So’s cell phone store.

The police are also looking into two other angles in the kidnapping but refused to elaborate. - With AP, AFP