Kidnap groups trawl beerhouses for victims

Beerhouse patrons, beware!

Big-time beerhouses in Metro Manila are now the favorite hunting ground of kidnap-for-ransom syndicates that use pretty guest relation officers (GROs) as “tipsters” to tell them of potential victims.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) yesterday warned clients not to flaunt their wealth inside these establishments so as not to suffer the fate of Ramon Murillo, vice president of the Philippine National Bank (PNB), who was recently kidnapped and released after paying P1 million ransom.

The Nueva Ecija police and the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER) rounded up at least 10 suspects in Murillo’s kidnapping, including Jocelyn Ferolino, 26, a GRO, who reportedly acted as the tipster for the Ilonggo Group.

“Mr. Murillo is living a very simple life. Look at the way he dresses and his car was of a late model. So nobody knows that he has money unless he unintentionally mentioned it to somebody else,” a police official said.

In the past, the favorite targets of kidnapping groups were mostly Binondo-based Chinese businessmen. The kidnap groups use active and dismissed drivers and household helpers as “tipsters.”

Prior to his kidnapping, Murillo had retired from the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) just before working at the PNB.

Camp Crame sources said Murillo and his “Chinese” friends frequented Heartbeat Disco along Quezon Boulevard in Quezon City where Ferolino, working as a GRO, constantly entertained them.

On the morning of June 3, Murillo was leaving the establishment when he chanced upon Ferolino standing near the entrance of the beerhouse and appeared to be waiting for somebody to fetch her.

Murillo offered Ferolino a lift when told that she was going to get something to eat from a nearby burger stand.

Carrying a small traveling bag, Ferolino boarded Murillo’s vehicle, an old model silver Honda CRV.

Unknown to Murillo, the traveling bag was the signal for the kidnappers identifying him as their target.

Minutes after Murillo and Ferolino settled inside the Honda CRV, four of the kidnappers, armed with handguns, barged in and announced the kidnapping, a Camp Crame source said.  

Murillo was handcuffed and blindfolded and brought to Nueva Ecija where he was transferred to a vehicle owned by Florentino “Rene” Amolo, the leader of the Ilonggo group.

It was Amolo who contacted Murillo’s family and initially demanded P15 million as ransom.

At the height of the ransom negotiations, four of the kidnappers – Melchor Herrera, 26; Nino Carangan, 22; Alven Lacandazo, and Crizaldo de Guzman – were arrested by the men of Senior Superintendent Napoleon Taas, Nueva Ecija police director, in Rizal town.

Taas and PACER director Senior Superintendent Dindo Espina kept the four suspects’ arrest under wraps until Amolo released Murillo last June 6 near the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City after his family paid P1 million ransom.

Police said Amolo immediately wired P150,000 of the ransom money to the province. PACER agents are still tracing the recipient of the money.

He was about to go on a shopping spree when collared by PACER agents in a mall in Manila.

Ferolino and the other suspects – Armando Aquino, 40; Reggie Reyes, 26; Edgardo Hernandez, 42, and Reynante Amolo – were arrested in subsequent operations by PACER agents in the gang’s safehouses in Blumentritt in Manila, and in Barangay Mayapyap in Cabanatuan City.

De Guzman died of a heart attack while in police custody.

PACER agents filed kidnapping charges against Ferolino and the eight other suspects.