Kidnappers posing as car buyers seize businessman

COTABATO CITY — Kidnappers posing as car buyers were believed responsible for the abduction of a Chinese-Filipino businessman here, police said yesterday.

Norman Sia, whose family owns a hardware store, went missing last Monday afternoon after he went for a test drive with three prospective buyers of his niece’s car, a metallic violet Kia Pride with LEW 969, police said.

The abandoned car was recovered hours later in nearby Tacurong City.

"The kidnappers reportedly (posed) as buyers. After the road test, (they) seized the victim and then fled toward an unknown area," Chief Inspector Raul Supiter, Tacurong City police chief, said.

Supiter said he suspected the Pentagon gang, notorious for a series of ransom kidnappings, to be behind the abduction. The group is on the US list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Two days before the incident, local authorities had warned wealthy Chinese-Filipino traders — often the target of kidnappers — about intelligence reports that four Pentagon members were planning to carry out kidnappings in the area.

Supiter said police and the military have launched a region-wide search for Sia and his abductors.

President Arroyo has ordered a crackdown on kidnappers and other crime gangs after the country was rattled last month by high-profile kidnappings, including that of Coca-Cola executive Betty Chua Sy who died of gunshot wounds when she tried to resist her abductors.

Police said they have captured two of the country’s 10 most wanted kidnap gang leaders and killed another in a shootout last month.

Starting Monday, joint police-military teams set up checkpoints in Metro Manila to search vehicles and passengers, and last week, Mrs. Arroyo lifted a moratorium on executions of convicted kidnappers and drug lords. — John Unson and AP