3 suspects in kidnap-slay of Coke executive arrested

Less than 48 hours after the body of Coca-Cola executive Betti Chua Sy was found at a Parañaque City roadside, authorities arrested yesterday three suspects in the kidnap-slaying case that has renewed concerns about rising criminality in the country.

Anti-kidnapping czar Angelo Reyes and Parañaque City police chief Superintendent Ronald Estilles said Ramon Dimol, Ernesto Palla and Romeo Vallano were arrested in their hideout in Trece Martires City in Cavite.

The kidnapping-murder case was declared "solved" only hours after presidential aspirant Sen. Panfilo Lacson questioned the qualification of Reyes to head the inter-agency National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (NAKTAF).

The news of the arrest came at around 3 p.m. while Reyes was meeting with representatives of Coca-Cola Export Corp., anti-crime activist Teresita Ang-See and police officials at Camp Crame in Quezon City

Reyes, a former military chief and defense secretary, said the three suspects were undergoing tactical interrogation but refused to give other details.

Estilles, on the other hand, said the suspects were arrested after Vallano, who admitted driving the kidnapper’s vehicle, surrendered to the police Tuesday night after the other kidnappers threatened his life.

Vallano told police that he was involved in Sy’s kidnapping and that his cohorts, including the brains of the abduction, were hiding out in Cavite.

Estilles then formed a 15-man team to accompany Vallano to the kidnappers’ hideout at Heritage Homes subdivision in Trece Martires City.

However, the three other suspects, who were identified only as Eddie, Babes and JR, escaped and are now being hunted down by the authorities.

Estilles said his men, plus four other members of the Trece Martires police, found packing tape similar to the tape found wrapped around Sy’s body, a handkerchief that seemed to have been used to gag her and hair strands.

Trail Of Evidence

Sy, 32, of Barangay Nagkaisang Nayon in Novaliches, Quezon City, was the commercial finance manager of Coca-Cola Export Corp.

She was reportedly on her way to work when she was abducted at around 9:30 a.m. last Monday by five men on Cuenca street in Barangay Biak-na-Bato in Quezon City.

Witnesses said Sy was shot twice in the right leg when she apparently refused to open the door of her Toyota RAV4, with license plates XHZ-210, to the perpetrators.

Three of the five men then carried the already unconscious Sy into their Toyota Tamaraw FX vehicle with license plates UFR-225. The FX, a taxicab registered under Jansen Transport, was found at the suspects’ hideout in Trece Martires.

Police said there were bloodstains on the front seats of Sy’s sports utility vehicle and bullet holes in both front doors of the SUV whose windows were also shattered. Police also found a slug and pieces of white tissue soaked with blood.

Estilles said the kidnappers then brought Sy, who was apparently already bleeding to death, to Trece Martires where, witnesses said, they arrived at Block 114, Lot 4 of Heritage Homes in Barangay Gregorio between 1:30 and 2 p.m.

He said it appeared that Sy had already died because of blood loss but the suspects called her family Monday night to demand ransom of P10 million.

Sy’s body was found by the roadside at around 4 a.m. Tuesday wrapped in a blanket and stuffed in a trash bag, near a seafront subdivision in Parañaque City.

Brownie Points

President Arroyo herself vowed "that the government will not stop until the perpetrators of (Sy’s kidnapping and murder) are brought to justice" and ordered the NAKTAF to solve the crime.

Mrs. Arroyo appointed Reyes, who was defense secretary until August, to lead the NAKTAF in a renewed crackdown on kidnapping syndicates which have perpetrated some 110 abductions involving 165 victims since January.

Sy’s kidnapping and murder was the worst of the more than 100 abduction cases this year, said Ang See of the watchdog group Citizens’ Action Against Crime.

But Lacson said Reyes was appointed NAKTAF chief for the "wrong reason" because the anti-kidnapping czar title was meant only to "mollify" the former defense secretary.

"I don’t think he is qualified for the job, hindi naman siya na-expose sa (he was not exposed to) police work," Lacson told former senator-turned-broadcaster Ernesto Maceda in his program over radio station dwIZ.

"Puro lip service lang, talagang walang nangyayari sa laban sa criminality (It’s all lip service only, nothing is really happening to the fight against criminality)," Lacson added. — With reports from Edu Punay, Katherine Adraneda, Jess Diaz, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Marichu Villanueva, wire services