"The victim’s kin are not cooperating with us, so we could not ascertain yet whether it is a kidnap-for-ransom case," Superintendent Wilfred Ramos, Malabon City police officer-in-charge, told The STAR.
Carlos Co, 56, a livestock feeds trader, was snatched by unidentified armed men on E. Custodio corner Rodriguez streets, Barangay Santulan, Malabon City near the boundary of Valenzuela City at around 5:20 p.m.
The victim was aboard his owner-type jeep, with license plate PDF-206, and on his way home to Barangay Panghulo, Malabon, when a flesh Mitsubishi Adventure, with license plate CJE-169, blocked his vehicle.
Ramos said a man, armed with a caliber .45 pistol, alighted from the Mitsubishi Adventure and at gunpoint ordered Co to get off from his jeep.
The suspect dragged Co to his vehicle and sped off towards Valenzuela City.
Witnesses immediately reported the incident to the authorities through police hotline 117 but when the cops arrived, the suspects were already gone.
Ramos said that a few minutes after the abduction, the suspects, using Co’s mobile phone, contacted the victim’s wife, Jovita.
"She was told not to talk to the police. So, that was it. The family no longer wanted to talk to us," Ramos said.
According to Ramos the witnesses first thought that the suspects’ get-away vehicle belongs to the police for it has Philippine National Police (PNP) and Land Transportation Office (LTO) stickers on its windshield.
Ramos said they are still coordinating with the LTO to verify the authenticity of the plate number of the suspects’ vehicle.
He said the Malabon City police already referred the case to the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER).