Binondo trader foils kidnap

A Filipino-Chinese drugstore owner luckily escaped from five suspected armed kidnappers yesterday morning in Sta. Cruz Manila.

It was the second kidnapping incident in the Chinatown District.

According to reports, Roland Chua, 24, was walking from his residence at the Park Tower townhouse along Tomas Mapua street to the Suy Chong drugstore which he owns, at Alonzo street when the kidnappers struck at about 7:50 a.m.

Police said Chua was approached by five men armed with M16 rifles and forced into a waiting 1998 gold Toyota Corolla with plate number BSM333.

Fortunately, though the kidnappers beat Chua on the head, he managed to wrestle with them, open the car’s door and jump off.

The commotion attracted the attention of three Western Police District scooter policemen led by SPO4 Rizalindo Morales who immediately gave chase.

Unfortunately, the cops’ scooters were no match to the kidnappers’ car which sped off without their intended victim towards Avenida Avenue.

WPD director Chief Superintendent Avelino Razon Jr. immediately ordered all possible exit points in the city blocked.

Last Wednesday, agents of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force recovered in a safehouse in Malolos, Bulacan, the bodies of five-year-old Eunice Chuang, a student of a Binondo Chinese school and her nanny, Bibeth Montesina.

Montesina, 26, and Chuang were kidnapped last Tuesday in front of the Fil San Bin School. The suspects asked for P300,000 in ransom.

Arrested at the safehouse were suspects Monico Santos, taxi driver, and Francis Canosa. Police said the victims died from suffocation. Montesina had been raped by the suspects.

As a result of the Chuang kidnapping, Razon ordered the administrative relief of Superintendent Josephus Angan as commander of the Binondo police station (Station 11) and two of his officers.

Angan and his officers, Inspector Teodorico Tolentino and Senior Police Officer 1 Mario delos Reyes, were reportedly slow in acting to the complaint filed by Eunice’s mother and the school principal.

Razon said the relieved officers failed to make a correct assessment of the complaint by treating it as a mere missing person’s case and not kidnapping.

"They did not properly follow procedures. Procedures dictate that missing persons reported to us, especially if the missing persons are children, should immediately be considered as kidnapping cases," Razon said.