The victim, Ryan James Yu, son of a wealthy Cebuano businessman, was found abandoned in a house for rent in a Cebu City subdivision.
Authorities said Yu’s abduction was apparently a test case of the syndicate which had a group which seized and kept the boy in Cebu City and another group here which negotiated the ransom.
"It shows there must be other people involved in the operation of this kidnap group for them to abduct somebody in Cebu and have the payoff in another place," said Senior Superintendent Wilfredo Garcia, Davao City police chief.
Garcia believes that a well-organized group could be behind the kidnapping.
"These people must also be well-equipped with communication gadgets for them to get in touch with one another," he added.
Garcia, however, said there is no kidnap-for-ransom syndicate operating in this city. "I can assure you that," he said.
Senior Superintendent Alex Paul Monteagudo, chief of Special Task Group-Mindanao, said STAG elements here and in the Visayas will go after the accomplices of the five arrested suspects.
"Kidnapping is a continuing crime and we will relentlessly go after the other members of the group that abducted Yu," he said.