Kidnapped Zamboanga City trader rescued

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Government security forces rescued a kidnapped Filipino-Chinese businessman and arrested four suspects during an operation in a village here yesterday afternoon.

Vinton So, 47, was rescued in the eastern coastal village of Talon-Talon more than two days after he was snatched from his junkshop in Barangay Sta. Maria, said Mayor Celso Lobregat.

“The combined city police and Task Force Zamboanga said they had pinpointed the location and I gave the signal to launch their operation,” Lobregat said.

Senior Superintendent Edwin de Ocampo, city police chief, said they spotted the safehouse along Norbi Drive and waited for hours before the rescue was carried out.

De Ocampo said the four arrested suspects – two women and two men - were placed under tactical interrogation.

“I’m lucky and I’m happy that I am alive,” So told reporters after his rescue. 

He said his kidnappers handcuffed and blindfolded him and kept him only in the safehouse.

So said the kidnappers directly negotiated with his family and demanded ransom, which he declined to say how much.