Records from the Makati City police disclosed that the incident happened at around 6:20 p.m. at the back of the posh Power Plant Mall located at the Rockwell Center in Barangay Poblacion, Makati City.
PO2 Juvenal Barbosa identified the would-be kidnap victims as Teresita Maderos, 39, single, a nanny from Barangay Mantipa, Quezon City and baby Kyla Ong Gibson, daughter of a British national and resident of Amapola street Barangay Bel-Air, Makati City.
Investigation conducted by Inspector Romeo Ramos, chief of the Makati City police Homicide Division, revealed that Maderos was on her way home from a nearby mall when the kidnap attempt took place.
The police said that while Maderos and her ward were walking on the sidewalk, four unidentified men on board a metallic-gray Toyota Corolla sedan with plate number PMX-608 blocked their way and forced them into the vehicle.
But while inside the car, the police said, Maderos continued to put up a fight until the vehicle was stuck in traffic.
Maderos managed to open the vehicle’s window at the backseat of the car and screamed for help at bystanders outside.
As a result, the four would-be kidnappers panicked and scampered out of the vehicle, fleeing in different directions, leaving the car behind, the police said.
It was revealed that the suspects were not carrying any firearms but investigators were able to recover a knife inside the vehicle.
Meanwhile, a Japanese national was arrested by the police in Caloocan City Monday while his cohort is now the subject of a manhunt for large-scale illegal recruitment.
The City Prosecutor’s Office recommended no bail for the provisional liberty of Fujita Zenchiro, 63, married, a native of Chiba, Japan and temporarily residing in Mabalacat Street, 6th Avenue.
Senior Superintendent Benjardi Mantele, Caloocan City police chief, said Eva Regino, 35, Zenchiro’s alleged business associate is being hunted. The complainants alleged that the suspects could have milked them of some P5-million in placement fees for non-existent jobs.
Police said Zenchiro was arrested at around 11:30 a.m. while hiding in the house of his live-in Filipina partner, Maribel, in Lot 14-B, Block 2 F. Suerte Street, Fortune II in Valenzuela City.
The arrest of Zenchiro was made by the Warrant Section of the Caloocan City police on the basis of a warrant issued by the Regional Trial Court of Malolos, Bulacan.
It was gathered that most of the victims, over 20 of them, were overseas Filipino workers who had been to Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, who wanted to try working in Japan through Zenchiro and Regino.
According to complainants Alicia Diaz, 50; Freddie Ocampo, 35; and, Alberto Anatalio, 39, they were asked to shell out P250,000 each as placement fee for non-existent jobs as factory workers in Japan.
Diaz claimed she was introduced to Regino through a friend. She said Regino offered her to work in Japan as a factory worker . – Marvin Sy and Jerry Botial