Student says he was freed by abductors

An 18-year-old electrical engineering sophomore student of the Mapua Institute of Technology claims to have been freed last Sunday morning after being kidnapped in Intramuros, Manila, last Thursday night by unidentified men.

Police reports late yesterday afternoon said only P11,000 cash, intended for tuition fee payment, was taken by the kidnappers from victim Jaime Domingo Jr., of 16 Cadena de Amor St. Andrea Village, Bacoor, Cavite.

Domingo told investigators of the Western Police District-General Assignments Section that he was abandoned by his abductors near the pedestrian overpass at the corner of Gonzalo Puyat (formerly Raon St.) and Quezon Boulevard in Quiapo.

Domingo told police that he was walking along Victoria street, in Intramuros at about 8:30 p.m. when two men wearing ski masks aboard a maroon van blocked his path and abducted him.

According to the victim, the masked men forced him inside the van and then covered his head with a hood. After a 20-minute ride, they arrived at a house. He told police that he was then taken to a room at the third floor of the house. The victim said the room’s only window was boarded up with plywood.

The suspects later took his tuition money and took turns in threatening him before leaving him alone for the night.

The following day, Domingo told police that he scribbled his name on the room’s wall in red ink to prove that he was really detained.

He told police that for the first two days, he was given food by his captors, but instead of water, he was given beer to drink. On the third day, he was given no food at all. – Mike Frialde