Police found yesterday a businessman-dentist wandering in front of an apartment, some 16 hours after seven armed men abducted him in his house in Oriental Mindoro.
Chief Superintendent Louie Palmera, police director of Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan), credited the tight police security at the airport, seaports and other entry and exit points of the province for the safe rescue of the victim, Dr. Gregorio Hora, 48.
“The victim was left unharmed by the suspects because of our relentless hot pursuit efforts. They also realized that they had nowhere to go,” Palmera told The STAR.
Palmera said the kidnappers demanded a P3-million ransom for the safe release of Hora.
He clarified though that Hora’s family did not pay a single centavo to the kidnappers, who are now the subject of a massive police manhunt.
Reports reaching Palmera showed that Hora had just parked his car in the garage of his house in Poblacion 2, Victoria town at about 7 p.m. Tuesday when ski mask-wearing men armed with caliber .45 pistols abducted him.
Hora and his male companion were handcuffed and dragged inside the house, which the kidnappers ransacked of jewelry, cellular phones and other valuables.
An hour later, the kidnappers blindfolded Hora and took him to a safehouse in Barangay Malinaw, Nanjan town.
At 2 a.m. yesterday, the kidnappers contacted Hora’s wife via a cell phone and demanded P3 million for her husband’s safe release.
The kidnappers lowered the amount to P2 million after she pleaded and told her to wait for their call for the payoff at around 3 p.m. yesterday.
Palmera said the kidnappers then transferred Hora to another safehouse, an apartment, in nearby Barangay Balete.
Upon receipt of reports of Hora’s kidnapping, Palmera promptly directed police units to seal off the airport, seaports and other exit points to prevent the kidnappers from leaving the province.
Palmera also directed them to intensify their rescue efforts, confident that the dentist was still in the island-province.
At about 11:15 a.m. yesterday, Palmera’s men found the kidnappers’ getaway vehicle, a Wrangler jeep, in Barangay Balete, not far from the second safehouse.
Scene of the crime operatives lifted fingerprints and other pieces of evidence while the others searched the nearby areas.
The responding policemen were surprised to find Hora walking aimlessly in front of the apartment building.
Palmera theorized that some of the kidnappers wore ski masks because Hora knew them. – With Arnell Ozaeta