Binondo police chief sacked

Western Police District director Chief Superintendent Avelino Razon yesterday relieved from his post the chief of the Binondo police station for command responsibility following the slow action taken by two of his men on the complaint of the mother in the kidnapping with murder case of a Filipino-Chinese girl and her nanny.

Ordered sacked was Superintendent Josephus Angan. He was replaced by his former deputy station commander Chief Inspector Marcelino Pedrozo.

Earlier, Razon ordered the relief and investigation of Senior Inspector Teodorico Tolentino and Senior Police Officer 1 Mario delos Reyes, both assigned at the Binondo police station, for their alleged slow action in replying to the complaints of Emily Chuang.

Chuang, mother of five year-old victim Eunice Chuang, and Maribel Gutierrez, principal of the Fil-San Bin Chinese school, went to the Binondo police station last Tuesday afternoon to complain about the abduction of Eunice and her nanny Bibeth Montecina, 26.

However, instead of responding, the two officers merely told them to return the following day as the victims have yet to be declared "missing" only after 24 hours.

To their dismay, Gutierrez and Chuang instead reported the abduction directly to Razon later that day.

Eunice and Montecina were kidnapped by suspects Monico Santos, a taxi driver, and Francisco Canosa, shortly after they boarded Santos’ taxicab in front of the Fil San Bin school in Binondo, Manila at about 11 a.m. last Tuesday.

Santos and Canosa were arrested by agents of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force Luzon Group late last Wednesday night at their safehouse in Sumapang Matanda, Malolos, Bulacan.

A search of the house led to the grisly discovery of the two victims who were found with their hands and feet tied and were stuffed inside the cramped ceiling of the safehouse.

According to the PAOCTF, the victims succumbed to extreme heat and died of suffocation.

Razon said Angan, Tolentino and Delos Reyes will be immediately transferred to the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Headquarters in Tagig on "floating" assignments while they are being investigated.

Meanwhile, the Citizens Action Against Crime (CAAC) warned the Chinese community against resurgence of kidnapping cases, particularly in Metro Manila.

CAAC spokesperson Teresita Ang-See issued the call a day after the PAOCTF recovered the bodies of Eunice Chuang and Montecina.

Ang-See said kidnapping-for-ransom incidents are likely to resurrect as criminal elements would likely take advantage of the current political crisis confronting the Estrada government.

Chuang and Montecina’s case was the third of its kind in October. The first case involved the abduction of three children on Oct. 3 and the second was the kidnapping of Steward Chu, a mirror company owner in Malabon on Oct. 14, who was released three days later.

"Life has to go on. The police has to keep their peak alertness and vigilance," she said. – Christina Mendez